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To find out more about the new challenges faced within this sector, we caught up with Denis Thayanithy, Director of Solutions and Partnerships at Crosscall. The French manufacturer of ultra-resistant and durable smartphones now equips more than 300,000 agents for the French Ministries of the Interior, Defence and Justice, and it is now a leading expert in critical communications.
WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF SWITCHING TO NEW COMMUNICATION NETWORKS?
This migration to a very high-speed network will modernise the communication means of actors in the security and emergency sectors. National and local police offers, firefighters and paramedics are still using radio equipment that was designed in the 1990s, with limited data transmission capacities. With 4G and 5G, on top of voice communications, they're able to send files, and share real-time GPS locations and even live video or images from the field.
In addition to that, all actors in the public security domain can now access a shared communication network, whereas previously, each entity had its own network. This meant that a national police agent couldn't communicate directly with a firefighter or a local police officer. They're now able to all communicate together, instantly, via a dedicated network, which is what we call "interoperability". The new possibility of these interactions between various entities will enable better management for interventions and critical missions in the field.
HOW HAS CROSSCALL BECOME A LEADING FIGURE IN THE FIELD OF SECURITY & DEFENSE?
Here at Crosscall, we design and manufacture smartphones with a 5-year guarantee that are perfectly adapted to the conditions encountered by field professionals. Thanks to their resistance, waterproofing and long battery life, they offer reliability in all situations, in any working environment. Here at Crosscall, users and their needs are at the focus of our product development : We talk with them, we go out into the field to learn about the reality of their work, and we offer them perfectly adapted solutions. This proximity and this capacity to design custom products is a great strength that allows us to reach out to and support actors in the security and defence sectors, which present very specific needs. In order to protect their citizens, security and emergency forces must be equipped with communication systems that are fast, secure, resilient and entirely interoperable.
We now equip interventions units and have been awarded the contract for equipping all French local and national police forces. In total, this represents more than 300,000 agents working under the French Ministries of the Interior, Defence and Justice, all of them able to rely on their Crosscall smartphone for successfully completing their daily assignments.
Our support continues even after the equipment has been deployed in the field. We effectively ensure that our users get long-term satisfaction from their solutions and we're constantly developing new solutions to support them with their challenges. We've also got the capacity to provide advanced technical support to some of our clients and partners, helping them with mobility challenges or with the roll-out of private networks, particularly for 5G networks. Of course, with the latter, adaptations are often necessary, whether it's for ensuring that the terminal quickly connects to the private network or for the integration of 5G calls (VoNR - Voice over NR).
HOW WERE YOU AWARDED THE CALL FOR TENDERS FOR EQUIPPING ALL NATIONAL AND LOCAL POLICE FORCES IN FRANCE?
The French Minister of the Interior was looking for rugged smartphones to equip law enforcement agencies. They were previously kitted out with classic smartphones and were confronted with multiple breakages, leading to additional costs as well as a loss of operational capacity. Today, a local or national police agent can do everything with their smartphone : they have access to all their work applications, can check an ID or the validity of a driving licence in real time, and can even generate a report. A smartphone that isn't working thus represents an agent that can't accomplish all their tasks. They therefore need reliable and high-performance equipment that will withstand the tests of time. Here at Crosscall, our smartphones and our tablets have a prolonged life span, a point which both reassures users and allows us to offer them at competitive global costs.
Compatibility with private communication networks (PMR) was also requested in the specifications for this call for tenders. We thus responded with a smartphone from our CORE range: Compatible with the main PMR frequency bands and fitted with 4 buttons dedicated to Push-to-Talk, SOS and channel change functions, which can easily be reprogrammed, it meets all of the criteria needed to position it as an ideal tool for critical communications. With these devices, law enforcement agencies have a terminal that is perfectly adapted to the transformation they're faced with.
CAN YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT THESE NEW SOLUTIONS?
Here at Crosscall, we also design and develop accessories that allow for a multiplication of the uses offered by our smartphones. National and local police in France have also opted for certain accessories, such as the X-POWER external battery or the X-CAR PRO car mount, giving them the ability to recharge their smartphone in their vehicle or even in the field. As their group communication needs are central to the success of their missions, we've developed X-COMM, a remote microphone/speaker. Connected to the smartphone, it allows users to speak remotely and offers all of the advantages of communication over 4G/5G networks whilst keeping the same gestures as those used for the radios that public security forces are used to using. Today, we want to be able to offer a solutions-focused approach to our users, so that we can support them with their needs and challenges, as specifically as possible.
Today, the smartphone is not only used for communicating, it's also central to multiple uses.This innovative approach enables our users to rationalise their equipment and to optimise the cost of their mobile fleet.
WHERE DOES INNOVATION STAND WITHIN CROSSCALL?
Innovation occupies central position here at Crosscall. We need to innovate to respond to our users' requirements and to sector evolutions. Driven by this notion, we've designed the CORE-Z5, the first smartphone in the world to be compatible with frequency band 68. This band is dedicated to public security it most European countries. With this smartphone, we're offering a group communication solution that allows users to have the pre-emption of the network, to optimally intervene in any situation.
In addition to this integration, we've worked on supporting eMBMS (evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Services) which enables the distribution of "point-to-multipoint" content. This enables multiple terminals to receive information which is sent by the antenna to all terminals, instead of receiving this information separately. This feature is supported in addition to the 68 band. Of course, this band has a 5 MHz bandwidth which, in cases of important events or crises, can prove to be insufficient when it comes to supporting various video flows shared with multiple people.
HOW ARE YOU STRUCTURING YOUR INDUSTRIAL APPROACH?
In order to be able constantly innovate, we've integrated an R&D skills centre into our headquarters in Aix-en-Provence.This enables us to provide custom technological responses with even higher performances, and also to maintain great agility and flexibility. We can hence cover almost all special requests by offering turnkey and custom solutions. This internalisation of our industrial approach allowed us to develop X-SCAN, an optical scanning module which attaches to the smartphone and transforms it into a high-performance mobile traceability tool. This need is becoming increasingly important for our clients: For example, firefighters need to identify and trace all their PPE (personal protection equipment) in order to guarantee the safety of their teams.
Closer to critical mission communication uses, we're currently developing a remote microphone/speaker which will allow for "direct mode" communication. This type of communication enables multiple devices, without network coverage, to communicate with one another. This is extremely useful when it comes to communicating in zones where cell coverage isn't optimal or is even non-existent, such as in underground car parks or uninhabited rural areas.
CAN A FRENCH COMPANY REALLY BE AN ASSET IN THIS SECTOR?
Effectively, we're the only telephony company with 100% of our shares held in France. This allows us not only to forge close ties with our clients and get a good view of their situations, but also to reassure them in terms of their data security. The control over our industrial tool allows us to develop sovereign communication solutions that are secure and resilient. Our terminals have an automatic update solution for the sovereign OS (FOTA), hosted on secure infrastructures in Europe and entirely compliant with GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), as well as being validated by expert national security teams.
ARE YOU FACED WITH ANY INTERNATIONAL CHALLENGES?
The modern critical communication market is on the precipice of a boom on a global scale. In the military domain, boosted by the intel drawn from the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the crucial role played by telecommunications in the conflict, armies are now planning to equip each soldier with a smartphone that is secured across an independent network with military intel, cyber-defence, geolocation and field medicine applications. Within the public security domain in Europe, several governments have already anticipated this migration towards high-speed critical communications by launching national programmes such as the RRF (France), ESN (UK), SIRDEE (Spain), etc. We're open to these challenges and are able to respond to requests from these actors thanks to our expertise and dedicated solutions.
TO WRAP THINGS UP, HOW DO YOU SEE THE FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS FOR ACTORS IN THE PUBLIC SECURITY SECTOR?
Law enforcement agencies, regardless of whether they work in the field or not, will be increasingly connected in the future. They'll be equipped with smartphones and dedicated accessories that enable them to manage all their assignments, wherever they are and more quickly and efficiently. Their critical mission management will be revolutionised with the high speed performances. From their command station, an officer can get full visibility over an intervention deployed within their team thanks to live video retransmission. On top of saving time, it also reduces risks in the field. The emergency service sector will also see a boost in efficiency, with the implementation of remote medicine. A doctor based in Paris can assist a paramedic intervening several hundreds of kilometres away, without having to travel! This is a huge benefit for citizens, who can receive treatment quicker and more efficiently at critical times.
Very soon, the smartphone will even replace the computer, meaning that field teams will only need to rely on a single device, which is much more mobile and secure.Technological innovation will support us in day-to-day activities, as we overcome these challenges.
Here at Crosscall, we also work in close collaboration with our users in the security and defence sectors to develop new solutions that will equip users of tomorrow. Amongst these solutions, Crosscall is already looking into supporting NTN (Non-Terrestrial Networks), a term which covers satellite networks. The brand is examining this subject as it has the capacities and expertise to respond to requests for coverage of increasingly vast areas, which are not necessarily covered by our current cell networks. The performance of communication tools for security and emergency services is an essential element in protecting both individuals and property.
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