Emergency/Catastrophe

The need for emergency telecommunications 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.

A significant part of the Standards work related to Public Safety is in the need for emergency telecommunications.

EMTEL

ETSI special committee 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 finalised 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). Membership has expanded since it was first established, and 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 revolutionise 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.

Progress was made in 2006 in support of the European Commission (EC) eSafety initiative, eCall, an in-vehicle emergency call service which will allow data generated during a road traffic accident or similar incident to be routed to a Public Service Access Point (PSAP) as part of an emergency call automatically instigated by the vehicle. This work has involved liaison with ETSI technical committee Mobile Standards Group (MSG).

TETRA

Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) is the modern digital Private Mobile Radio (PMR) and Public Access Mobile Radio (PAMR) technology for police, ambulance and fire services, security services, utilities, military, public access, fleet management, transport services, closed user groups, factory site services, mining, etc.

The following is a list of recently published and frequently downloaded standards. Please use the ETSI Work Programme to find further related standards.