Call for closer critical comms cooperation in a volatile world

Communications, and by implication critical communications, are entering a more volatile and demanding technology era. Rising technology costs, unstable supply chains, geopolitical uncertainty and expanding regulatory obligations are no longer background pressures. They are now material risks to the affordability, timing and resilience of mission-critical communications programs.

The ability of emergency services, public safety organisations, transport operators, utilities and other critical infrastructure sectors to communicate effectively depends upon long-term investment in trusted communications networks and technologies. However, developments in global technology markets threaten the predictability and sustainability of these investments.

A new paper from TCCA outlines how the critical communications community needs to strengthen cooperation across government, users and industry to maintain trusted, interoperable and future-ready services. These pressures affect the full ecosystem — governments, public safety agencies, operators, network providers, manufacturers, suppliers and service providers — increasing procurement risks, shortening pricing horizons, making long-term investment planning more challenging and placing greater strain on infrastructure renewal and modernisation programs.

For critical communications, this matters because delay is not simply a commercial inconvenience. Slower technology refresh cycles, deferred upgrades and constrained supplier participation can weaken operational readiness, reduce resilience and make the transition to broadband mission-critical services harder to deliver.

“The considerations raised by TCCA are already reflected in emerging Australian and New Zealand policy settings,” said Australasian Critical Communications Forum (ACCF) Chair Bidar Homsey. “Governments across the region are strengthening critical infrastructure resilience, expanding cybersecurity obligations, modernising digital procurement frameworks and promoting secure technology supply chains. These initiatives acknowledge that critical communications systems are increasingly strategic national infrastructure assets requiring long-term investment certainty, procurement flexibility, and trusted sovereign and international technology partnerships.”

In Australia, there is an increasing focus on capability sustainment costs in critical infrastructure and digital transformation programs. Long-term infrastructure resilience planning increasingly recognises rising technology and cybersecurity costs. Multi-year resilience planning and stronger government–industry collaboration for nationally significant infrastructure is promoted.

The country’s ongoing reforms to the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act 2018 (SOCI Act) and updated Protective Security Policy Framework (PSPF) continue to expand compliance, cybersecurity, governance and reporting obligations. These directly increase investment requirements for operators and vendors, while the Digital Marketplace and whole-of-government ICT panels were specifically designed to make procurement more agile, outcome-focused, technology-neutral and SME-friendly.

In New Zealand, critical infrastructure reforms are heavily focused on cyber resilience, infrastructure dependencies and supply-chain security, with infrastructure resilience assessments increasingly examining life cycle investment requirements and vulnerability-driven expenditure needs. Ongoing critical infrastructure reform consultations are looking at whether existing regulatory and procurement approaches remain fit for modern digital and cyber-dependent services, with the government consulting on mandatory cybersecurity expectations for critical infrastructure operators, recognising that additional resilience obligations will require new investment.

“Governments and policymakers should formally recognise technology inflationary pressures and supply chain volatility as strategic resilience risks for critical communications infrastructure,” said TCCA Board Chair Tero Pesonen. “Funding models need to be designed to provide long-term certainty as well as the flexibility needed to sustain secure and resilient critical communications networks.

“We are calling for closer cooperation between governments, regulators, operators, users and industry to ensure that critical communications networks remain trusted, sustainable and fit for purpose in an increasingly uncertain macro environment.”

A robust, sustainable and forward-looking investment environment is essential to ensure that critical communications systems remain trusted, secure, interoperable and fit for purpose through the next phase of technological change.

Regulators, operators and users need to engage with industry to ensure that new resilience, cybersecurity and supply chain assurance obligations are properly reflected in investment planning.

Read the full position paper, ‘Technology Inflation, Supply Chain Volatility and the Future Resilience of Critical Communications’, at tcca.info/resources/white_papers_.aspx.

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