Comms community needs to work together

The end of 2015 brings on Comms Connect Melbourne and the ARCIA annual gala dinner. So much time and planning goes into these events; I would sincerely like to thank everyone who helps bring our industry together. It certainly has been a big year for the association with events in Perth, Sydney, Brisbane and finally, Adelaide. Also, in October, ARCIA again did a presentation on our industry to a group of visiting Chinese led by Mr Li Wei of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. This is valuable exposure for our association and the industry in general.

Perhaps more importantly is the ongoing work going on behind the scenes on spectrum policy, public safety mobile broadband, training, industry position papers and growing the association's relationships with other industry stakeholders. In particular, I would like to highlight the relationship that ARCIA and the ACMA are continuing to work on. ARCIA believes strongly that we need a level of regulation and applicable standards to provide important protection, while at the same time be in a position to review productive changes to regulation for the mutual benefit of the industry and the regulator. I am pleased to report that the relationship between the ACMA and ARCIA is continuing to grow as we invest more time, and I would like to thank the ACMA staff members involved.

The most recent state event was in Adelaide, and both the Comms Connect mini conference and the ARCIA dinner event were well attended and, judging by the buzz in the room, was very well received. Members will recall that ARCIA has started to recognise industry contributions at a state level. The latest winner at the ARCIA South Australian event was Andrew Birks from Gambier Electronics. Andrew was commended for his long-term commitment to his business and recent investment in a local trunk radio network to improve services in the south-east of South Australia. Regional operators such as Gambier Electronics face special challenges in making new investments in modern networks, and Andrew and his team are to be congratulated on their efforts.

As the public safety community absorbs and begins to dissect the Productivity Commission report on Public Safety Mobile Broadband, in my view the entire industry needs to collaborate around better outcomes for this vital sector. Regardless of the technology chosen, we all want the public safety community to have the best possible options to enable them to meet community expectations every day. As LTE reaches maturity and assumes a position to provide critical services sometime in the future, we need to recognise that Australia is a big place and there are many needs to be met. I believe that one thing we can agree on is that there is no one-size-fits-all technology.

So as a community of vendors, practitioners, users and government, we need to work on a plan including spectrum, funding and technology. For some users this is already past the 'use by' date, as movements to harmonise government spectrum are expected to happen shortly. During the Adelaide event the project team from the South Australian Government Radio Network provided a presentation on their methodology for a successful network transition. The methodology started with a focus on outcomes and gaining the trust of public safety users. After all, the people keeping us all safe are our most important asset.

Hamish Duff

President

Australian Radio Communications Industry Association