LTE standards body set to complete mission-critical PTT standard in March

Officials at 3GPP have made development of the MCPTT standard a priority during the past year, even taking the unusual step of creating a new working group focused on the completing the work—much of which is outside the scope of 3GPP’s normal consumer-centric standards development. This effort was encouraged by influential countries like the United States, South Korea and the United Kingdom, which are planning to deploy nationwide public-safety LTE systems in the near future,

In the U.S., FirstNet officials have said that its LTE system will support commercial-grade LTE voice from the first day of the network’s operation on 700 MHz Band 14 spectrum. In its recently released request for proposal (RFP), FirstNet indicates that MCPTT functionality should be integrated throughout the system two years after its contractor is selected, which would be in the latter half of 2018.

There has been considerable speculation about the potential long-term impact that MCPTT over LTE could have on the LMR industry. FirstNet officials generally have not engaged in the debate, stating only that the organization plans to offer MCPTT when it is available and that public safety will have decide when—or if—it trusts the technology enough to use it during critical operations.

There are wildly differing industry opinions about when MCPTT over LTE would be adopted by public safety, with some saying it could happen within five years—assuming public-safety LTE networks like FirstNet are deployed—and other saying that it will take decades, if it ever happens. Regardless of the timeline, there is a general agreement that EMS and police personnel likely would adopt MCPTT over LTE before firefighters would use the technology as their primary voice communications while trying to extinguish a blaze.