Public Safety

Public safety is enhanced by good communications, whether as a result of Professional Mobile Radio (PMR) or its close relation; Public Access Mobile Radio (PAMR) or via resilient and secure public [tele]communications networks.

It is very difficult to underestimate the contribution that Public Telephones have made to public safety and particularly the contribution that the emergency numbers (911, 112, 999, etc) have made.

In the new era of ubiquitous mobile phones public safety is again enhanced, with many mobile phones allowing the emergency number to be dialled when the keypad is locked or even when the terminal has no active SIM card.

A significant part of the Standards work related to Public Safety is in the need for emergency telecommunications, which includes many scenarios ranging from a minor road traffic accident to a major incident like a passenger train crash, a terrorist incident or a natural disaster such as an earthquake or tsunami.

ETSI Special Committee Emergency Communications (EMTEL) is responsible for the creation of requirements concerning emergency communication services. In 2007, the committee expects to complete its full set of specifications governing communications in times of emergency, covering communication of citizens with authorities, from authorities to citizens, between authorities and amongst citizens.

New reports on the suitability of the Short Message Service (SMS) and Cell Broadcast Service (CBS) for emergency messaging and on the requirements for emergency communications network resiliency were also published in 2006. A study of emergency calls and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is well underway and is expected to be finalized by the middle of 2007.

Project MESA

Project MESA (Mobility for Emergency and Safety Applications) is a transatlantic partnership project, established by ETSI and the North American Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA). Project MESA now also has members from Canada, China, India, Korea, Australia and Japan. Its charter is to produce user requirements and technical specifications for a digital mobile broadband system which will revolutionize the efficiency of first responders and rescue squads during an emergency or a disaster.

3GPP™

The Third Generation Partnership Project deals with a number of 3G services dedicated to public safety: the Priority Service and Multimedia Priority Service, the Voice Group Call Service (VGCS) for public authority officials, the transferring of emergency call data and the Public Warning System.

3GPP^TM specifications already support the high-level requirements identified for Priority Service, and 3GPP^TM is now augmenting the existing standards for Multimedia Priority.

As a result of recent ETSI security workshops and the ETSI security White Paper, and in response to the need for effective methods of dealing with the consequences of downloading and activating a virus on a mobile telephone, new work began on the Selective Disabling of User Entity (UE) Capabilities. This work is expected to be finalized in 2007 and will be included in 3GPP^TM Release 7.

See www.3gpp.org for more details.

TETRA

Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) is deployed in over 88 countries worldwide, with the main market being amongst national public safety organizations.

TETRA Release 1 and the core of the TETRA Release 2 standard are already complete; standardization work on the TETRA Enhanced Data Service (TEDS), the Peripheral Equipment Interface (PEI) and the TEDS Designer's Guide continues and is expected to be finalized in 2007.

ETSI also revised several of the TETRA standards in 2006 to take into account user feedback from field experience.

ETSI Technical Committee SAFETY

ETSI technical committee SAFETY provides ETSI with a centre of technical expertise in the safety fields, able to offer advice to other ETSI technical committees, the ETSI Board and the ETSI General Assembly.

Proofing Products against Crime

A new area with significant potential for new standards, Proofing Products against Crime involves integrating or embedding crime-prevention features into products - to reduce their potential to become targets of criminal activity (such as theft, fraud or damage), as well as preventing their use as instruments of crime.

The term 'product' encompasses physical objects, electronic information, electronic services and computer software. The European Commission has requested action from the European Standards Organisations on this topic.

ETSI's first contribution is a White Paper on Proofing Products against Crime, which presents the key concepts of crime proofing of ICT products.