SK Telecom and Nokia have jointly developed the world's first push-to-talk communications technology over VoLTE for public safety and other mission-critical applications.
The joint solution uses the mission critical push to talk (MCPTT) standard for mission-critical voice functionality over LTE, adopted by the 3GPP in March 2016 in response to demand from emergency services organizations in markets including Korea.
Unlike IP-based push-to-talk, which is heavily affected by the number of concurrent users of the same network, MCPTT is designed to ensure a stable service even when there is a surge in users.
MCPTT achieves this by using the VoLTE network and applying eMBMS-based group communication system enabler (GCSE) technology.
SK Telecom plans to use the solution for public safety LTE (PS-LTE) and LTE railroad (LTE-R) applications in Korea, and expects to be able to use the new solution to expand its reach to countries that are currently promoting the public safety network projects, such as the US and UK.
“For the first time in the world, SK Telecom and Nokia have successfully developed MCPTT, the core solution for public safety networks,” SK Telecom SVP and head of infrastructure business promotion office Shim Sang-soo commented.
“SK Telecom will continue to contribute to the successful completion of the public safety network project in Korea, while actively seeking new business opportunities in the global market.”