Mission-critical Push-to-Talk: a key element of public safety communications

While monitoring the crowds at a busy music festival, a police officer gets a radio call about an armed robbery at a nearby store. Moments later, she also receives a video from the store’s security camera, showing the suspect and the direction they took when fleeing the scene. Despite high levels of traffic on the mobile network from festival-goers, the officer receives both of these transmissions instantly and has no trouble staying in touch with dispatch while she tracks the suspect and makes a positive identification to support an arrest. 

That’s just one way Mission-critical Push-to-Talk (MCPTT) can help first responders and other public safety personnel keep their communities safer, giving them a faster and more reliable way to communicate when it matters most. In the coming years, MCPTT has the potential to transform emergency management by giving public safety personnel access to even more data and greater situational awareness.

What is mission-critical Push-to-Talk?

Whether it’s a dedicated device like a two-way radio or a mobile app on a smartphone, Push-to-Talk (PTT) solutions are designed for fast communications, allowing users to communicate with individuals or a whole group with the push of a button. PTT includes features such as group calling, location tracking, alerting and the ability to send text and images. 

MCPTT includes those same capabilities but is also specifically designed to overcome the challenges faced by first responders and public safety personnel during an emergency. For example, large numbers of people gathered for a music festival, parade or other major event can cause cell sites to experience high levels of traffic as users in the area make calls, send texts, post to social media and so on. This includes first responders and public safety personnel who need reliable mobile service to manage the crowd or respond to an incident nearby. 

MCPTT grants first responders and public safety personnel priority access to the network ahead of all other traffic, removing lower-priority users as necessary (referred to as pre-emption) to free up resources for their use. 

To be considered public-safety grade, MCPTT solutions that work over LTE must meet specific criteria established by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). Standards include the requirement of reliability and availability, along with dynamic, role-based quality of service, priority and pre-emption, interoperability and security. In addition, the MCPTT devices themselves must be suitable for a wide variety of public safety roles and environments. Achieving the 3GPP standards requires tight integration between the LTE network, PTT application, radio access network and other elements to ensure the performance, reliability and security that mission-critical communications demand.

How does MCPTT support public safety communications?

MCPTT gives first responders and public safety personnel an effective and reliable tool for communication and coordination. It provides the capabilities needed to send and receive various types of data, including video and images, that can support and accelerate response efforts and public safety initiatives. Personnel can access all these capabilities on a single device, and with the right configuration, can use them outside areas of LMR coverage. 

The evolution of mission-critical Push-to-Talk

Development of the 3GPP standards for mission-critical communications began in 2012, and LTE technology for emergency and security services was introduced in 2015. The 3GPP standards expanded in 2017 to include data, video and ambient listening (which dispatchers can use to monitor a situation through a first responder’s device), and again in 2024 to account for 5G connectivity.

Bell plans to enter the MCPTT market in 2025 with its PTT Priority service, which will include Push-to-Talk and Push-to-Data functionality. In the years that follow, we will expand MCPTT coverage in Canada to match the LMR network footprint and prepare for the eventual 3GPP standard of 6G connectivity.  

Why Bell for public safety?

With over 30 years of public safety expertise, Bell is an established leader in mission-critical communications solutions. Our comprehensive suite of technologies, including P25 LMR, Push-to-Talk (PTT), Mobile Broadband for First Responders (MBFR), interoperability, Next Generation 911 (NG911) and SD-WAN enables us to support communications across a number of public safety agencies. This flexibility in terms of solutions uniquely positions Bell to meet the demands necessary to deliver a PSBN.

Our approach to public safety communications is holistic, leveraging an ever-growing and expansive partner ecosystem to deliver innovative, interoperable solutions. With the capability to design, deploy and maintain P25 LMR and PMN – as well as integrate advanced Internet of Things (IoT) and Internet of Life Saving Things solutions – our goal is to improve the situational awareness and safety of first responders on the scene. Beyond the technology, Bell will provide the end-to-end professional services necessary to maintain networks tailored to the unique needs of the region or agency. Our unmatched suite of solutions, technical expertise, infrastructure and advanced partnerships go hand in hand with our commitment to innovation, security and connectivity, ensuring we deliver a world-class PSBN and best-in-class solutions to enhance public safety operations nationwide.  

Supporting the vital work of public safety organizations

By providing priority network access to public cellular network resources during an emergency, MCPTT helps frontline personnel respond faster by ensuring they can receive and share information that’s critical to both public safety and their own. When every second counts, this can lead to faster, more reliable, emergency response and streamlined recovery efforts. 

More can be done to support the important work of first responders and public safety personnel. That includes the subject of the next article in this series: resolving the interoperability challenges that can hinder communication and coordination in public safety. 

For more information about Bell’s solutions for public safety and our long history in this sector, visit bell.ca/publicsafety.