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00:00:01
Slicing for Survival: 5G’s Role in Emergency Response
30 Plays4 months ago
In this episode, I am joined by Ildefonso De La Cruz, a fellow Analyst, Podcaster, and Leading Expert on Critical Comms at Omdia. Join us as we dive into the evolving world of the public safety communications market. From the long-standing role of narrowband networks to the transformative potential of broadband, we unpack how technology is reshaping mission-critical connectivity. We also explore the importance of network slicing—why it matters and what it means for the future of first responders and emergency services. Whether you’re in public safety, telecom, or simply curious about the infrastructure that keeps communities connected in times of need, this conversation offers valuable insights into where the industry is headed.
Want to know more about Critical Comms? Follow the link to Ildefonso's Crit Comms Circle podcast!
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast: lots of new things happening
00:00:01
Pablo Tomasi
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Telco Drift. For those that I haven't met yet, I'm Pablo Tomasi, and I'm sort of a semi-independent analyst covering different parts of the Telco and tech value chain. and Today, we have like a fantastic episode not only because I use all my technical skills to ask AI to to do a new logo of the podcast for me, which in itself is already a great achievement, but also because we have a new amazing guest.
Guest Introduction: Ildefonso de la Cruz
00:00:29
Pablo Tomasi
And today we had Ildefonso de la Cruz from Il Ildefonso welcome to the Telco Drift.
00:00:36
Alfonso (Omdia)
Well, thank you very much, Pablo. It's a real pleasure to to be here today. Let's see what what the episode has in store.
00:00:45
Pablo Tomasi
Oh, there's plenty plenty of like really interesting questions within this episode that are just ah waiting for an analyst to input. But before we we dive into that, yeah can can you just, I mean, you're a well-known analyst within the critical comms circle, um but you know can you just provide a little bit more information for you know some of the folks that may not be that familiar with you know public safety, critical comms.
00:01:11
Pablo Tomasi
And if I'm not mistaken, ah mostly because I knew it already, you're also a podcaster. So any information from that, any recommendation from me, actually?
00:01:18
Alfonso (Omdia)
Oh, yeah. Absolutely. let me do Let me do my elevator pitch. ah My name is Ildefonso la Cruz. Everybody calls me Alfonso. I am the senior principal analyst at Omdia leading the research on critical communications.
00:01:37
Alfonso (Omdia)
And that spans from the narrow band technology used by public safety, utilities, transportation, and other critical enterprise verticals.
00:01:49
Alfonso (Omdia)
And more recently, I've had the pleasure to go into the adoption of broadband and the impact of this new technology into these verticals. So the idea of how technology is evolving and with that, it transforms the operational ways these enterprises and these um public safety agencies were using the technology.
00:02:16
Alfonso (Omdia)
also the ecosystem, and the questions that come up with the evolution of of technology in the realm of critical communications, making sure and guaranteeing that the foundational principles of reliability and availability and security are always maintained.
00:02:35
Pablo Tomasi
So so you just jumping in, a chunk of your work is understanding when is the shift going to happen in terms of you know existing tech and
00:02:44
Alfonso (Omdia)
Correct, correct. So it isn't a shift as such. is I keep saying it is not a trend revolutionary transition.
00:02:55
Pablo Tomasi
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:02:57
Alfonso (Omdia)
It is more like an evolution of the mindset of how end users leverage technology to guarantee that when it's needed, they'll have communication availability.
Evolution from Narrowband to Broadband
00:03:11
Alfonso (Omdia)
What I mean by that is there won't be a date where things go overnight from narrowband to broadband. It will be what I call the coexistence era where both technologies coexist.
00:03:29
Alfonso (Omdia)
we get the best or end users get the best of ah each house. And as their needs and their operations and their protocols transform, making use of either more voice or more video or more data, as these dynamics change the and fluctuate then that's when we'll see which technology has the prevalence, right?
00:03:56
Alfonso (Omdia)
Until now, voice has been king in in this aspect.
00:04:00
Pablo Tomasi
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:04:02
Alfonso (Omdia)
When there is a crisis and an emergency, the communication narrows down to voice, voice communication. But it is undeniable that the capabilities that that are enabled by technologies like 4G and 5G will open a lot more use cases and services that these end users can tap into.
00:04:31
Alfonso (Omdia)
So the transformation is there, and that's what I am sort of monitoring. What are the dynamics? How does that impact not only the technology, but also the ecosystem, the players, the the business models, and so on.
00:04:43
Pablo Tomasi
So if you're thinking um you know from from a telco side, because I i some somehow decided to call this the Telco Drift So let's let's think as a telco. How optimistic do you think they should be about the increasing relevance, increasing adoption of
Opportunities with Broadband Expansion
00:05:01
Pablo Tomasi
broadband? So it's something for them to be really excited in the morning and say, like, that's a good opportunity for us.
00:05:07
Pablo Tomasi
Or should they be it a little bit more ah cautious in terms like, this this guy is going to happen over time, but you know hold your horses type of thing.
00:05:08
Alfonso (Omdia)
right.
00:05:16
Alfonso (Omdia)
Telco should be really excited. This is a fantastic opportunity because it's been, until now, what we call a very niche market. um It's narrowband technologies that don't necessarily have the relevance to a wider public.
00:05:32
Alfonso (Omdia)
But now we're talking about cellular. We're talking 4G and 5G and the Gs that are that are coming.
00:05:38
Pablo Tomasi
It's on.
00:05:39
Alfonso (Omdia)
So all the know-how and the experience, unique experience and and skill sets that telcos have evolved throughout the years, the lessons learned all the way from from the early adoption of 4G and now with 5G can be leveraged to a set of verticals and in in user groups that really are starving for those capabilities that are promised by the adoption of 5G.
00:06:16
Alfonso (Omdia)
So, I have described telcos as the real key or catalyzers for adoption of broadband in a mission critical environment.
00:06:30
Pablo Tomasi
the
00:06:30
Alfonso (Omdia)
What I mean by that is in the past, for in order to protect the the security and the reliability of the network,
00:06:42
Alfonso (Omdia)
Public safety agencies, and what I mean by that is the the law enforcement or firefighters, ah emergency services like ambulances, would go and procure solutions and set up the original real private networks directly from a manufacturer.
00:07:02
Alfonso (Omdia)
What I mean by that is all the base station infrastructure, the devices, the professional services, that would all come in a one-stop shop
Challenges of Narrowband Networks and Broadband Solutions
00:07:13
Alfonso (Omdia)
type of type of finder.
00:07:13
Pablo Tomasi
So that would be like um a Motorola solutions type of, as an example.
00:07:16
Alfonso (Omdia)
That'd be a Motorola. Yes, there are there there are a lot of, it it's it's a small playground of major ah institutions, Motorola Solutions, Airbus, Hytera, Sepura those are L3 Harris in North America.
00:07:18
Pablo Tomasi
Mm-hmm.
00:07:32
Pablo Tomasi
Mm-hmm.
00:07:33
Alfonso (Omdia)
Those are very relevant examples of what it was in the past or what has been until until now in the narrowband world.
00:07:44
Alfonso (Omdia)
However, As we know, the promise of broadband...
00:07:49
Pablo Tomasi
can i can can i Can I just stop you there a second? Just just something that you know came to mind. So were they used to have dedicated spectrum, I imagine, for this public safety or or not?
00:08:01
Alfonso (Omdia)
Right, exactly. there is There is dedicated spectrum, but you need to think of it as narrowband. So the amount of spectrum is is minimal.
00:08:07
Pablo Tomasi
yeah Yeah, no, it's like tiny, tiny tiny chunks of of you know low band spectrum that that you can use, again, effectively but effective supporting voice.
00:08:09
Alfonso (Omdia)
Yes.
00:08:15
Alfonso (Omdia)
Absolutely, absolutely. And that has created ah a special mindset, the mindset that in order to guarantee reliability, everything needs to be dedicated.
00:08:26
Pablo Tomasi
Mm-hmm.
00:08:27
Alfonso (Omdia)
And that has created the ecosystem where we are right now, but it has also hindered the progress in some scenarios. What I mean by that is, yes, you create a completely, um let's say, isolated network that provides the services to your intended user group.
00:08:48
Alfonso (Omdia)
And at a level of... your resources are dedicated so you don't have to compete for those. You are protected in the sense that you you have that security of you are the only one that has access to that network.
00:09:00
Pablo Tomasi
Mm-hmm.
00:09:03
Alfonso (Omdia)
But as we know, One of the challenges that comes with this type of scenario is collaboration. And collaboration is extremely important in these environments.
00:09:14
Alfonso (Omdia)
um Conversations that I've had in with with different ah members of the public protection and disaster relief community is the fact that when they have to address a crisis, they cannot communicate with their peers in other agencies.
00:09:34
Alfonso (Omdia)
Firefighters have a challenge communicating with law enforcement, with emergency services, or even with volunteer volunteers that are ah helping when a crisis demands for for extra resources.
00:09:49
Alfonso (Omdia)
That is a major challenge. That because of the structure, that narrow band was set up as a very siloed um architecture,
00:10:02
Alfonso (Omdia)
they they couldn't um communicate beyond their initial predefined user group.
00:10:10
Pablo Tomasi
so So is that, is that big yeah yeah, sorry, let me just jump in with some some question.
00:10:10
Alfonso (Omdia)
That is being addressed. Yeah, go ahead.
00:10:15
Pablo Tomasi
Is it because you have like public safety having like its own dedicated network with one of the vendors and then firefighters having another separate dedicated network. So the purchasing power was was held by different agency and there was no overarching coordination.
00:10:26
Alfonso (Omdia)
That is exactly correct.
00:10:33
Alfonso (Omdia)
Correct. So that is because of the flexibility. This is more relevant in certain countries, like for example, the US. ah Each public safety agency had the jurisdiction to decide their procurement process.
00:10:49
Alfonso (Omdia)
So you could have in the same county, the firefighters and the ah law enforcement, the police, getting solutions for P25, which is one of the narrow band technologies that um addresses the needs of of public safety in the US from different vendors.
00:11:04
Pablo Tomasi
I
00:11:12
Alfonso (Omdia)
They could not talk to each other and they cannot talk to each other. And that has been documented extensively in major incidents. For example, 9-11, one of the major challenges is the fact that the agencies responding during
00:11:23
Pablo Tomasi
and
00:11:30
Alfonso (Omdia)
the the ah during the response could not communicate with each other.
00:11:35
Pablo Tomasi
i'm im I'm always ah amazed by how some of the biggest technical challenges, when you boil them down, they are they are really about a very simple lack of communication between stakeholders.
00:11:46
Alfonso (Omdia)
Absolutely.
00:11:47
Pablo Tomasi
Because, you know, we are working in the same field. Let's have a chat and and decide, okay, this is who we're going to go so we can have that. But I imagine, yeah, separate budgets, separate priorities.
00:12:00
Pablo Tomasi
And and you're like, okay.
00:12:01
Alfonso (Omdia)
It's a pyramid pyramid of needs. When you are um
00:12:04
Pablo Tomasi
Hmm.
00:12:08
Alfonso (Omdia)
dealing in a normal scenario, the the sort of the eighty twenty You are happy with your baseline connection. You don't have ah an extreme sense of urgency.
00:12:20
Alfonso (Omdia)
So you are dealing with how can I improve beyond the essential. But these networks have to be designed for that 1% of the time.
00:12:32
Alfonso (Omdia)
where nothing else matters except getting that communication across, because that will be the difference between a success in your crisis or emergency response versus a major failure that could result in in the loss of human lives. so that is the the tricky part of visualizing the context of obviously,
00:13:00
Alfonso (Omdia)
What is the bare minimum, the essential that you need to guarantee when everything else fails? And that until now has been voice communication amongst um public safety ah end users or or emergency responders, the first responders.
Sharing Knowledge through Podcasting
00:13:21
Pablo Tomasi
and in As I mentioned before, and we're going to put the link in the description of the podcast, you're also running your own podcast with that one of your colleagues, ah which which deals exactly with this.
00:13:32
Alfonso (Omdia)
That's correct.
00:13:35
Pablo Tomasi
It goes like you know deep dives on public safety and and critical comms.
00:13:40
Alfonso (Omdia)
um
00:13:42
Pablo Tomasi
Any recommendations for me more than instruction for the podcast?
00:13:44
Alfonso (Omdia)
No, absolutely. I think i think you've done... You've done the hardest, which is getting started. Our podcast, Omdi's CritCom Circle, started three years ago, and yeah was ah response to a need in the market or a gap in the market that
00:13:58
Pablo Tomasi
Wow.
00:14:05
Alfonso (Omdia)
for information about the current state of the industry and how it aligns to the needs and the conversations that we were having with end users.
00:14:11
Pablo Tomasi
Mm-hmm.
00:14:18
Alfonso (Omdia)
So in many cases, we said there is in a platform where we can touch on technical terms that directly address the need for interoperability, new use cases, new players in the market that have transformative services or solutions, how to make sure that the awareness is ah facilitated both ways, that the industry and telcos and and and new players understand the needs of end users and that end users
00:14:55
Alfonso (Omdia)
are able to understand the technical terms without being daunted by by extremely ah complex white papers. It's a conversation. It's something that's, ah that format was very easy to digest, something you can listen on your way to work.
00:15:16
Alfonso (Omdia)
But our ultimate goal is to bring golden nuggets that will, of of knowledge or topics that,
00:15:23
Pablo Tomasi
Mm-hmm.
00:15:25
Alfonso (Omdia)
definitely bring ah the moment of, oh, wow, that that I could use, that I could put into practice. I didn't know that my colleagues somewhere else in the world have implemented the solution.
00:15:39
Alfonso (Omdia)
That is something that we could benefit from. That was our ultimate goal. and And the response has has been really positive.
00:15:47
Pablo Tomasi
Amazing. And for everyone listening, yeah, just just check on the on the link. you know It's going to be available. Spotify, Apple Podcasts, a usual place. It's really good podcast. It also can kind of, yeah, it makes me think because I haven't had such a well-structured plan when I started this, but i will come up with something more structured eventually to to meet a need in the market. For for now, let's let's swing it ah as it goes and something will
The Role and Benefits of Network Slicing
00:16:15
Pablo Tomasi
come.
00:16:15
Pablo Tomasi
But, you know, part of the reason, um why I wanted to have this chat with you today is because as you mentioned, there is this, you know, broadband is some somewhat appearing, becoming more relevant.
00:16:26
Pablo Tomasi
And within the realm of broadband, I know network slicing has been um highlighted by some as that ah revolutionary technology, which ah again, according to some is is even better than the dedicated network experience that you would get in the US for instance.
00:16:33
Alfonso (Omdia)
Mm-hmm.
00:16:44
Alfonso (Omdia)
Mm-hmm.
00:16:45
Pablo Tomasi
um how How important you think is network slicing And does it stand that comparison of a dedicated cellular network? Let's called FirstNet, for instance.
00:16:55
Alfonso (Omdia)
Mm-hmm.
00:16:56
Pablo Tomasi
ah How is the situation?
00:16:59
Alfonso (Omdia)
and Okay, let me let me answer that question indirectly. let me Let me put some context into what are the needs for this community, for these end users, and what I mean by the community, I'm talking about first responders, but also the community of enterprise or or critical infrastructure verticals, transportation, utilities, military, et cetera.
00:17:28
Alfonso (Omdia)
What are the major pillars when it comes to needs? They need to make sure or guarantee that their systems are, one, reliable.
00:17:41
Alfonso (Omdia)
What I mean by that is that they will work when and where they'll need it. They don't have the luxury pre-planning when an emergency is going to occur or where it will o occur.
00:17:53
Pablo Tomasi
Mm-hmm.
00:17:57
Alfonso (Omdia)
That's why I said that before, they have to be designed for the 1% time of events.
00:18:08
Alfonso (Omdia)
When designing a commercial network, you are able to, let's say, a telco service provider understands the population dynamics, the dynamics in transportation, where people are,
00:18:25
Alfonso (Omdia)
at what time, where it makes sense to have high density ah solutions in order to guarantee that the that the network will be able to cope with the demand.
00:18:35
Pablo Tomasi
Yeah.
00:18:37
Alfonso (Omdia)
However, it is very challenging to plan for events when when or where you don't know it will happen.
00:18:49
Alfonso (Omdia)
So reliability a ubiquitous service coverage and ah security. They have to be at the highest level of ah protection because of the nature of the data that that they will be dealing with.
00:19:10
Alfonso (Omdia)
When moving to broadband or or broadband becoming a player that could potentially be adopted, and if you push me replacing the incumbent solutions, the question is, broadband has not been designed with the 1% in mind.
00:19:37
Alfonso (Omdia)
The principles are, let's let's provide connectivity, but will it work in a basement?
00:19:37
Pablo Tomasi
yeah
00:19:43
Alfonso (Omdia)
Will it work in a congested ah environment. So congestion, capacity, coverage are the the major C's that a critical network designer has to keep in mind.
00:20:04
Alfonso (Omdia)
Dedication of resources has always been the go-to. If I dedicate Spectrum, if I dedicate infrastructure, if I dedicate all of the resources exclusively to this user group, they will never have to compete, so they will know that the resources will be available.
00:20:20
Alfonso (Omdia)
However, we're talking about extremely large networks. They have to cover ah not only cities, but not only like states. but They have to cover pretty much nationwide coverage. And that becomes a extremely ah costly.
00:20:42
Alfonso (Omdia)
Even more so... when we move from narrowband to broadband because of the coverage of the base stations, the physics of the frequency at which 4G and 5G base stations transmit.
00:20:53
Pablo Tomasi
Mm-hmm.
00:20:56
Pablo Tomasi
Is he a...
00:21:01
Alfonso (Omdia)
That's where slicing becomes, like it's it's a series of of um solutions that in a combination of those make it possible.
00:21:15
Alfonso (Omdia)
So when you ask me how important it is, it is essential. It is fundamental without guaranteeing the availability of resources. It is not even ah question whether broadband works.
00:21:30
Alfonso (Omdia)
will be will be a a feasible technology for this community.
00:21:33
Pablo Tomasi
Mm-hmm.
00:21:36
Alfonso (Omdia)
So the fact that we now have, and I like saying this this word, an elegant way of guaranteeing this, but also in a cost-effectively manner, that changes the whole game.
00:21:53
Alfonso (Omdia)
It makes it possible. It makes it replicable in countries or for service providers that don't have the luxury of being able to dedicate spectrum, dedicate entire ah blocks of of their infrastructure, because they just don't have those budgets.
00:22:12
Alfonso (Omdia)
So it makes that um It addresses that the congestion and the dedication and the availability of resources in a very practical way.
00:22:24
Alfonso (Omdia)
Why? Because we create a a virtual partitioning of a single network, but we are able to tailor it to the services needed by these specific type of end users.
00:22:44
Pablo Tomasi
So slicing is sort of like that that ah essential ingredients that that will enable more and more telcos to serve this market. But my question would be, ah but you know I'm um um biased, of course, because I've covered private networks for many times, right?
00:23:01
Pablo Tomasi
When you compare it side by side with a private network, does the comparison stand performance-wise? Are there some drawbacks?
00:23:10
Alfonso (Omdia)
Well, um that's a really good question.
00:23:11
Pablo Tomasi
and And how important is
00:23:13
Alfonso (Omdia)
that is a very analyst ah type of type of question.
00:23:17
Pablo Tomasi
it? I will take it as a compliment. Yeah.
00:23:19
Alfonso (Omdia)
Absolutely. No, absolutely it is. if If I compare solution A to solution B, which one is better? Which one has the best metric?
00:23:27
Pablo Tomasi
yeah
00:23:30
Alfonso (Omdia)
But then my question, I'm going to answer with a question first, which that's also very analyst.
00:23:35
Pablo Tomasi
That's also very analyst type of answer.
00:23:38
Alfonso (Omdia)
If I were a consultant, I would tell you, well, it depends. But I'm going to answer with a question.
00:23:42
Pablo Tomasi
But you would charge me quite a nice fee.
00:23:46
Alfonso (Omdia)
Is which metric are you... prioritizing.
00:23:52
Alfonso (Omdia)
If you don't have to compete and you have 100% of the resources all the time, is that better than having just what you need when you need it?
00:24:06
Alfonso (Omdia)
How does that make a difference?
00:24:11
Alfonso (Omdia)
What I'm trying to say is like we could be creating, duplicating a network and having dedicated spectrum that is available all of the time, but end users don't need to operate in the 1% of the time at all times.
00:24:15
Pablo Tomasi
yeah
00:24:25
Pablo Tomasi
But I would imagine if if I'm like a public safety, the way that I'm comparing them as I comparing imagining, OK, I am at 1% in 1% scenario where something has happened.
00:24:25
Alfonso (Omdia)
They don't need
00:24:37
Pablo Tomasi
How is the slice comparing to to the private network? I would imagine that's how you're going to to compete. We're not thinking about the rest.
00:24:44
Alfonso (Omdia)
Right. so So what I would tell you, in terms of performance, very similar.
00:24:50
Pablo Tomasi
OK.
00:24:50
Alfonso (Omdia)
Why? Because you don't won't have all the resources all the time, but you will have the resources that you need when you need it. They will be dynamically provisioned to guarantee that the ah the the resources that you need when and where they're needed are available.
00:24:57
Pablo Tomasi
Mm-hmm.
00:25:08
Alfonso (Omdia)
So if you compare, will they have 10 megahertz, 20 megahertz, 40 megahertz. What are the speeds that are, like they will be, it's what is the bandwidth that it's allocated?
00:25:19
Pablo Tomasi
Yeah.
00:25:22
Alfonso (Omdia)
What is the speed that it's feasibly operational for those those use cases? They will have whatever it's needed, when it's needed, it if orchestrated and provisioned correctly.
00:25:36
Pablo Tomasi
and yeah
00:25:37
Alfonso (Omdia)
So then the second question is, what is the the priority metric that you have? And I would argue, well, the metric has to be what makes it possible.
00:25:50
Alfonso (Omdia)
And that one in the majority of the cases is the budget, the money.
00:25:56
Pablo Tomasi
Yeah, it's all about the money.
00:25:56
Alfonso (Omdia)
What is the cost of... it is big In this sense, it's it's mainly about the money because it makes it possible or not.
00:26:05
Pablo Tomasi
Mm-hmm.
00:26:05
Alfonso (Omdia)
If I were to advise public safety to only focus on purely dedicated spectrum, purely dedicated infrastructure, dedicated everything,
00:26:19
Alfonso (Omdia)
I would rule out many ah possibilities that could be achieved at a fantastic level of like of of of service without, of experience actually, I like using using the word, it's like the the quality of the whole experience will be similar to dedicated at a fraction of the cost.
00:26:22
Pablo Tomasi
Mm-hmm.
00:26:41
Pablo Tomasi
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:26:42
Alfonso (Omdia)
So if you ask me, They are very similar in terms of quality of experience, but one is easily replicable in areas where budget is challenging.
00:26:56
Pablo Tomasi
mm m
00:26:57
Alfonso (Omdia)
And the other one like,
00:27:02
Alfonso (Omdia)
like
00:27:05
Alfonso (Omdia)
Definitely, the the it's it's it's better in terms of the metrics because they will have dedicated resources 100% of the time, but it is unfeasible or it's it's a scenario that just cannot be replicated in every single market.
00:27:16
Pablo Tomasi
Mm-hmm.
00:27:25
Alfonso (Omdia)
So what slicing does is it democratizes the the broadband system at a mission critical level.
00:27:37
Alfonso (Omdia)
What I mean by that is a guarantee of the the capacity, a avoidance of congestion whenever first responders or critical enterprise users will need it.
00:27:51
Pablo Tomasi
And and i'm I'm curious, have you looked at the sort of additional services, you know, layered on top of the slicing? So I'm at telco selling network slicing. Will I also be selling some dedicated services in terms of ah additional backup of the of the towers that are interest to you or...
00:28:12
Pablo Tomasi
anything like that. Is there something that that is happening? Because would imagine on the other side, if you are a dedicated network, you have the dedicated service team.
Global Broadband Adoption Variations
00:28:20
Pablo Tomasi
So I would imagine if I'm offering network slicing as a telecom saying, don't worry, because if something happens, you're still going to have some of my people will just be there for you no matter what to to make sure that your network work.
00:28:21
Alfonso (Omdia)
Yes.
00:28:30
Alfonso (Omdia)
Yeah.
00:28:31
Pablo Tomasi
Is that the case?
00:28:33
Alfonso (Omdia)
Yes, definitely. ah that One of the challenges that comes with ah network slicing is because of the, like, I don't want to say that there are no compromises made with a with a slice, as opposed to having your own dedicated ah infrastructure.
00:28:51
Alfonso (Omdia)
One is the fact that failure is not an option. So because you are sharing ah the one single network, if that fails, There has to be a service of redundancy in place or a fallback mechanism in place in order to guarantee that Everything else can fail, but there has to be a way for these communications to still be available when that happens and when a merchant like when first responders need to make use of those those systems.
00:29:16
Pablo Tomasi
yeah
00:29:30
Alfonso (Omdia)
So there is a long list of of services that, especially when when it comes to to redundancy and reliability, that can be... um
00:29:42
Alfonso (Omdia)
designed specifically for these type of mission critical end users.
00:29:48
Pablo Tomasi
And the the the other thing that that came to mind ah when when when talking about network slicing and the end I mean, it's it's pretty exciting, right? and And to be fair, it doesn't happen that often that people are excited for telcos about something.
00:30:05
Pablo Tomasi
and So that's that's very good. um But I wonder, so... You know, network slicing we're thinking about the priority. like That's pretty pretty much from from T-Mobile US.
00:30:13
Alfonso (Omdia)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:30:16
Pablo Tomasi
um But what I'm curious is that if I'm thinking about the US market and you touched on that before, you have like all those separate purchasing powers that can decide what they want to do with their budget.
00:30:27
Pablo Tomasi
If you're bringing this somewhere else in Europe, are you going to not have the single purchasing power and be mostly sort of one centralized market?
00:30:40
Pablo Tomasi
decision-making, one centralized budget, and and that will decide whether you're going network slicing dedicated, or whatever. um And that's the case. Does it doesn't make a zero some game for telcos in the sense that outside of the US, if you get picked, you get picked.
00:30:55
Pablo Tomasi
And if you don't, you' you're out of the game. is Is that the case? Is that such a brutal scenario? Are there some ways around it?
00:31:02
Alfonso (Omdia)
ah That is that is ah the way many countries in Europe have opted to go for.
00:31:14
Alfonso (Omdia)
um The challenge of having a very distributed network word is that it creates interworking and interoperability challenges.
00:31:26
Alfonso (Omdia)
In most countries here in the UK, there's one single contract that will be enforced.
00:31:31
Pablo Tomasi
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:31:34
Alfonso (Omdia)
So sort of ah one telco contract. They provide the infrastructure for the entire emergency service network, the ESN here in the UK.
00:31:46
Alfonso (Omdia)
the The telco is EE, and they want that contract. In other countries, for example, ah France, where they have designed their broadband network to replace their Tetraple network, what they've done is a secure MVNO type of adoption.
00:32:08
Alfonso (Omdia)
There is one new service provider created by the government. And what they're doing is they have a secure MVNO contract with two different telcos uh Orange and and Bouygues the beauty of broadband is that it has come completely changed the formula that they can go there's not a single go-to-market approach it's not the one single then one single in telco multiple telcos um
00:32:21
Pablo Tomasi
okay
00:32:45
Alfonso (Omdia)
it is It really depends on the country and the circumstances and the context that makes sense for that country.
00:32:50
Pablo Tomasi
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:32:58
Alfonso (Omdia)
So... As I said, reliability is extremely important. So having that redundancy of of service in many cases is not a good to have, but a must have.
00:33:13
Alfonso (Omdia)
So limiting to to a single entity is is always challenging. And the mentality of of this community is whenever possible, trying to maximize the interworking and the partnership to make sure that um there isn't a single point of failure in that and that network.
00:33:34
Pablo Tomasi
So, effectively, it is replicable besides the US, although it can take different shapes depending on the on the country.
00:33:41
Alfonso (Omdia)
Absolutely. No, it can it can take...
00:33:42
Pablo Tomasi
but but But it's not a one-off experiment, which I think that's the main thing, right? We we want to find things that can be done.
00:33:47
Alfonso (Omdia)
for For the U.S., exactly. For the U.S., the challenge you have is a very large market with a historical ah just like separation of of jurisdiction.
00:34:01
Alfonso (Omdia)
So as I said, each a public safety agency has their the right to choose their vendor, and they didn't want to give that up when when addressing adoption of of broadband.
00:34:01
Pablo Tomasi
Yeah.
00:34:12
Alfonso (Omdia)
There is a FirstNet um was a government initiative that AT&T managed and built by AT&T now, ah won that contract.
00:34:25
Alfonso (Omdia)
But they still have ah Verizon Frontline, T-Priority as alternatives.
00:34:29
Pablo Tomasi
yeah
00:34:33
Alfonso (Omdia)
The challenge that they have is it's not only a matter of... um redundancy or reliability or having alternatives, but also one thing that they need to address is that inter-working functions and collaboration functions.
00:34:52
Alfonso (Omdia)
Because the challenge that they might enter by creating these siloed differentiated solutions is that they might find themselves full circle, where the challenge is full circle, is the fact that one firefighter using one solution might not be able to talk to the police,
00:35:07
Pablo Tomasi
yeah
00:35:10
Alfonso (Omdia)
man using a different type of um solution. And that is something that is a challenge in the US, but I feel the design in Europe and the conversations that governments are having at a national level and at a European Union level are highly are are addressing those those challenges head on.
00:35:31
Alfonso (Omdia)
They don't want to repeat the siloed ah problems of the past.
00:35:37
Pablo Tomasi
um that's I wasn't expecting the podcast to end up being so optimistic, but that's good. It has to be optimistic now and now now and again.
00:35:44
Alfonso (Omdia)
and need to I need to bring a ray of of sunshine to... it is a very exciting moment.
00:35:49
Pablo Tomasi
it it dark and cloudy telecom world, yeah.
00:35:50
Alfonso (Omdia)
i so I cannot um i kind of disguise the optimism because we are very lucky to be witnessing such a timely event in the industry, which is the adoption of broadband for a very serious...
00:36:12
Alfonso (Omdia)
ah use case and and and sort of service need, which is the the groups that protect the essential course of society, the public protection, the disaster relief, the critical infrastructure, the power, the transport.
00:36:24
Pablo Tomasi
Mm-hmm.
00:36:31
Alfonso (Omdia)
That is the fact that we are protecting that and that the technology that we observe on a daily basis has an impact into that. I mean, that's a reason to come to work with a smile.
00:36:44
Alfonso (Omdia)
um so Or so I keep telling myself.
00:36:45
Pablo Tomasi
Yeah, ah always, always a reason reason to come to work with as mine. But you know to to bring a little bit more of like you know dark clouds on this, because because that that's going to be my thing.
Broadband's Broadening Horizons Beyond Public Safety
00:36:57
Pablo Tomasi
ah No, this is a fantastic opportunity. And you know we've we've discussed this before. And if you look at other adjacent verticals, think about utilities, railways, why not? You can see some of those benefits.
00:37:10
Pablo Tomasi
But what I see as an issue is that when we're thinking about network slicing lot of people were like thinking, OK, this can be applied anywhere. And I see the application in those like critical, very specifically demanding verticals.
00:37:24
Pablo Tomasi
That will happen over time, I'm thinking. But then for a lot of other verticals, don't really see the need. in In some other cases, I'm struggling to see how network slicing
00:37:36
Pablo Tomasi
if i If you're an average user, right would you even notice that?
00:37:36
Alfonso (Omdia)
Right. But that is, that I think is the, it's the same conversation that we experienced with the, at the very beginning of 5G.
00:37:40
Pablo Tomasi
And I still think that's...
00:37:52
Alfonso (Omdia)
5G kept promising,
00:37:52
Pablo Tomasi
Yeah, it's is is's still there.
00:37:54
Alfonso (Omdia)
massive connectivity, enhanced speeds, ah low latency, ultra high reliability. And you said, well, I can see that use for for certain groups, but how will the average consumer
00:38:12
Pablo Tomasi
Yeah.
00:38:12
Alfonso (Omdia)
will ah benefit from that. The beauty of slicing is that it's dynamic provisioning. that is That to me is what what makes it so elegant, is that you are not dedicating like a fixed channel.
00:38:24
Pablo Tomasi
Yeah,
00:38:26
Alfonso (Omdia)
It's something that it will be tailored. It's almost like a bespoke solution, but in real time. you won't be needing the same amount of resources all the time and in every single situation.
00:38:40
Pablo Tomasi
yeah. yeah
00:38:42
Alfonso (Omdia)
So the piece that really brings this all together, in my opinion, the the wah-ha moment is the orchestration piece.
00:38:54
Alfonso (Omdia)
The idea that you can dynamically create, modify, scale up or down the resources dedicated to to these groups. That is the magic that makes me excited.
00:39:08
Pablo Tomasi
Your optimism is contagious. yeah i i see I see that. i'm I'm just thinking, if I have a critical use, yes. If I'm the average Joe with my corporate phone, ah i don't i i don't like i do I don't care.
00:39:20
Alfonso (Omdia)
Right, because that is not, that is, I've had that conversation in the past.
00:39:26
Pablo Tomasi
So I would say the criticality of the of the use is what is dictating whether you need it or not. And then that that brings us back into those critical verticals. Or am I too skeptical?
00:39:35
Alfonso (Omdia)
ah the The criticality of the vertical and the and the use cases and the service makes makes that a no-brainer. It's essential for it to be even even a question.
00:39:44
Pablo Tomasi
and Okay. Yeah.
00:39:47
Alfonso (Omdia)
But I would argue that there are other verticals that I wouldn't necessarily or immediately ah put in the same bucket as as critical infrastructure or even public safety.
00:39:59
Alfonso (Omdia)
But they would benefit from an enhanced experience when it comes to the benefit that bring in real-time video, real-time analytics. Bandwidth heavy resource heavy type of new applications would have a major impact in their operational, ah in their operations.
00:40:19
Pablo Tomasi
Yeah. but Broadcasting and sports come to mind as as those examples.
00:40:21
Alfonso (Omdia)
So
00:40:24
Alfonso (Omdia)
absolutely, absolutely. but Broadcasting sports ah it's is the perfect example. It's something that will be, will have major surges of of needs or peaks that could,
00:40:36
Alfonso (Omdia)
dynamically bit be addressed without having to say, no, we have to enhance the entire network in order to address single peaks of of needs.
00:40:37
Pablo Tomasi
Hmm.
00:40:48
Alfonso (Omdia)
So it not only ah addresses the needs of today, it might address the new use cases that that now are being envisioned for each of these verticals.
00:41:00
Alfonso (Omdia)
but also at at a realistic or practical and cost-effective way.
00:41:07
Pablo Tomasi
i mean if There are some some further questions online, but but I think we're running out of time. um My last conclusion that hopefully if I cover this long enough, I'm going to get invited to some you know football games and stuff as ah as an analyst.
00:41:22
Pablo Tomasi
NBA Finals, just to witness the technology.
00:41:23
Alfonso (Omdia)
yeah
00:41:25
Pablo Tomasi
just yeah you know that's i'm I'm all about the business side of things.
00:41:28
Alfonso (Omdia)
youre there You're there for the science. Absolutely.
00:41:31
Pablo Tomasi
Yeah, I'm i'm i'm i'm just going to make the effort to you know see through an NFL game or something.
00:41:32
Alfonso (Omdia)
me too.
00:41:37
Pablo Tomasi
but ah You know, let's let's let's let's give you the you know the the last comments for for the webinars. Any recommendation um on either for telcos or for public safety? So this is an exciting bright future in this um with this technology, with what is happening.
00:41:57
Pablo Tomasi
What should be the priority? That's a short term, couple of years.
00:42:00
Alfonso (Omdia)
um
00:42:01
Pablo Tomasi
What should people really be thinking?
00:42:03
Alfonso (Omdia)
I think I'm going to answer and and and close with the first...
00:42:08
Pablo Tomasi
and Not a with a question again. Okay.
00:42:10
Alfonso (Omdia)
No, no, no, no, no. Answering this question and the first question that you asked me, which is, should they be excited? I think telcos should be excited because they're aligning with their capabilities and the The technology, what technology enables, which is not only slicing, but let's say now non-terrestrial coverage that addresses some of the major needs of this community.
00:42:33
Alfonso (Omdia)
So they can really create a full solution to guarantee that experience. And it also aligns with the needs of not only a small group of end users, which is public safety, but something that they can create that domino effect.
00:42:51
Alfonso (Omdia)
The first piece is the critical solution and then they can expand into a much bigger ah addressable market. So yes, it's it's definitely a reason to to be excited.
00:43:07
Alfonso (Omdia)
And then they should focus on creating those experiences, that quality of experience that addresses not only the the need for congestion avoidance, capacity to guarantee, and coverage guarantee.
00:43:21
Pablo Tomasi
Okay, fantastic. And let's end on a very positive note. And Alfonso, thank you very much for for joining the Telco Drift. And yeah, looking forward next time, we're going to have the opportunity to catch up and and see how the market has been moving forward.
00:43:33
Pablo Tomasi
Thanks again.
00:43:35
Alfonso (Omdia)
No, my pleasure.