France is readying for the Summer Olympics by rolling out public safety broadband on a limited basis, reported Urgent Communications. The system will be similar to the USA’s FirstNet, with some differences. According to Guillaume Lambert, deputy secretary general for France’s Ministry of the Interior, the country’s police forces and gendarmerie—a military-based law-enforcement organization—will connect to broadband through Orange (NYSE: ORAN) during the Olympics.
Lambert added that the Reseau Radio du Futur (RRF), a public safety broadband initiative, will not be widely available through Orange and Bouygues Telecom until later in 2024. “We created some gateways between the narrowband system and broadband for that use during the Olympics, but the nationwide opening will be by the beginning of 2025,” he added.
During the Olympics, the entity overseeing the RRF deployment will test the broadband network’s functionality and ability to perform in the challenging conditions surrounding the summer games. Lambert added that various testing will occur simultaneously, including the law enforcement application called Storm and the fire, ambulance, and armed forces application called Syrius.
Lambert noted that the RRF solution will start with public safety entities migrating from the country’s existing private mobile radio system. He said the goal is to make this transition “as smooth as possible” and retire the existing land mobile radio network.
While U.S. Congress provided the FirstNet Authority with $7 billion in seed funding and a license to 20 MHz of spectrum in the 700 MHz Band 14, France’s government plans to pay carriers (Orange, Bouygues Telecom, etc.) under a mobile virtual network operator model. According to Lambert, this approach enables a shorter time to market.
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