Icom focuses development efforts on emerging broadband, IoT technologies

Icom may be best known in the communications industry for its portfolio of land-mobile-radio (LMR) products, but the Japan-based this week showcase enhancements to its Connect suite of solutions that is designed to leverage myriad broadband technologies to address customers’ communications needs, according to a company official.

“Where we’re going, as a brand, is where the industry is going,” Mark Jordan, Icom’s national sales manager, said during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications. “We’re moving toward IoT [the Internet of Things], and we already have IoT-based solutions. Our eyes are on 5G and IoT out in the space where we see the industry going. That’s where we’re developing.

“We will still always have LMR products. We’ll have analog products. We’ll still have digital protocols for land mobile. We’ll have P25. But the long-term development will be to incorporate everything and bring everything forward along with where we’re looking, which is 5G, LTE and FirstNet.”

Connect lets customers “create a seamless voice and data ecosystem” where devices using technologies like LTE, satellite, WLAN, and P25 can be integrated into a unified voice-communications group. Connect “is Icom’s suite of multiple protocol solutions that we use to create a larger ecosystem,” according to Jordan.

“At the heart of Connect is a gateway, and then the gateway itself can connect all of these various protocols, from LTE to WLAN to satcoms [satellite PTT] … back to our own digital trunking protocols and digital linked multisite protocols and SIP,” he said. “Everything is built in and interweaved to create an ecosystem.

“The goal of this Connect concept is that we want to be user-focused, so that we’re not approaching the user and forcing them to use an specific device and protocol, but the user defines what the device and protocol is.”

This flexibility can be valuable to enterprises that have personnel with very different use cases but may need to communicate to coordinate efforts in the best way possible to enhance a customer’s experience, Jordan said, citing resort employees as an example.

While maintenance crews may used hardened LMR devices and housekeeping personnel may be using an over-the-top push-to-talk-over-cellular app, they can communicate via the Connect platform, Jordan said. Icom’s versatile platform also can help enterprises solve connectivity issues in difficult environments, such as inside of buildings with poor RF propagation or in remote areas, he said.

“[Indoors,] your only options is to do a Wi-Fi-style radio or to try to force some kind of BDA in there, which is expensive, so their device is a device that fits their mission,” Jordan said. “If it’s somebody going outside of their RF coverage, they’re going to use something that helps them get back to the system. If they take a day trip out in the middle of nowhere, we’ve got satellite PTT.

“The value is that all of it is connected as one harmonious ecosystem. And it comes with metadata, IDs and you have emergency functionality. If it’s within our native protocols, then it will all function as one giant group. That’s what we’re offering. That’s what we’re excited about—the ability to focus on the user’s mission, allow them to identify what is the device and protocol they need to accomplish their mission.”

Icom’s Connect gateway is at the heart of the system, and the fourth version of the gateway—the VE-PG4—will be showcased this week in Booth 1925 at IWCE, Jordan said.

“One big difference [between the VE-PG4 and Icom’s previous Connect gateways] is that there’s a controller for the WLAN radios—the Wi-Fi-style radios,” Jordan said. “There’s a controller built into the Version 4 that was not in the Version 3, so you have 50-unit controller that allows that.

“That will also have the ability to upgrade to our next generation of subscriber units [such as the IP110H IP radio].”

The VE-PG4 also has four built-in ports that support digital products, according to Jordan.

“In the prior versions, you’d have to plug in a dongle for the vocoder to allow it process the digital between LMR and anything back inside of the gateway,” he said. “Today, it’s built in.”

Icom’s latest gear includes support for WPA2 and enterprise-grade security, which should let the company compete for a new set of customers, Jordan said.

“We actually have that next level of enterprise-grade security,” Jordan said. “That was a requirement in that space that we didn’t have in the prior versions. Now we do, so that allows us to get into the larger applications for higher enterprise kinds of businesses, like commercial buildings with multiple different tenants, each of which has different requirements for its security. This allows us to inject ourselves back into that marketplace, whereas before we had to pass on that kind of business, because we didn’t have the security level.”

Icom this week also will showcase the new IP110H IP radio, P25 solutions, Remotatec device integration and the combination of the IP100H—Icom’s current IP radio—and Rajant’s Kinectic Mesh, according to a company press release about IWCE 2022.

Icom’s willingness to invest in emerging technologies is a key reason why Jordan chose to return to Icom for his second stint with the company during his career.

“The thing that attracted to come back to Icom is that … we are an MVNO with AT&T in the U.S.,” Jordan said. “The thing that attracted me is that we have a fully baked program with LTE. We’ve got LTE built into the gateway. We’ve got continuous development.

“I can tell you that, out in the industry, the service providers and the integrators that are advanced and ahead are doing this [developing solutions that leverage broadband connectivity and IoT platforms]. This is where the industry is going, and we’re right there. And we’re offering our dealers and service providers the opportunity to come along with us.”