ASTRID, the nationwide operator for Belgium's emergency and security communications services, launched the next generation of its Blue Light Mobile service, which offers data services to ASTRID users.

As announced by President Juncker in his 2017 State of the Union Address, the Commission presented on October 18th a set of operational and practical measures to better defend EU citizens against terrorist threats and deliver a Europe that protects. The measures aim to address vulnerabilities exposed by recent attacks and will support Member States in protecting public spaces and help deprive terrorists of the means to act. The Commission is also proposing to further strengthen the EU's external action on counter-terrorism — including through Europol — and is recommending the EU open negotiations on a revised Passenger Name Record agreement with Canada.

Manfred Blaha had the opportunity to present the BroadMap project and introduce the plan for the PSCE-led proposal to the European Commissions SEC-04-DRS2017 call, purchasing innovative Broadband solutions and pilot systems for Europe's Public Safety Organisations to the "Public Safety Radiocommunications Group" meeting in Copenhagen.

Manfred Blaha and David Lund presented the activities of PSCE at the occasion of the latest 3GPP Project Coordination Group (PCG) meeting in Vienna on 28 September. The PCG is the highest decision making body in 3GPP, it meets formally every six months to carry out the final adoption of 3GPP Technical Specification Group work items, to ratify election results and the resources committed to 3GPP. It was an outstanding opportunity to reflect on the wok done across projects in which PSCE has been or is currently involved in front of a global audience of experts.

 The presentation is available here.