Lord Paddick – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Paddick on 2015-10-23.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to push for a global standard for mission-critical voice functionality over commercial 4G networks.

Lord Bates

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is the international body that writes standards for 4G technology (http://www.3gpp.org/) . The Home Office has been attending a number of working groups within 3GPP since November 2012.

In January 2015 a new working group within 3GPP, SA6 Mission-critical applications was created specifically to standardise mission-critical voice functionality over 4G networks. The Home Office supported the creation of SA6, currently funds the chairman of that working group, and sends other attendees to this, as well as related meetings within 3GPP.