Airbus chairing Finnish research programme to address critical comms challenges

​Airbus has announced that it is chairing Priority, a Finnish government-funded research programme, which was launched in August.

Priority will seek to answer key research questions around 5G security, artificial intelligence (AI), rural area coverage, and quality of service in hybrid networks – to improve critical communications and situational awareness for public safety users.

The programme’s consortium consists of around 20 stakeholders from the Finnish public safety community – including user organisations, a mobile network operator, research organisations, and enterprises.

“The market is witnessing a major shift in public safety communications and operations due to technological evolution, as well as new environmental and criminal threats. In the future, artificial intelligence will be essential for our customers from public safety organisations, both to improve the efficiency of mission critical operations, and the safety and security of societies” said Tapio Savunen, strategic marketing director for Secure Land Communications at Airbus and chairman of the Priority program steering group.

“Public Safety users such as police, fire and rescue personnel have specific requirements, which grow beyond those of consumers or enterprises. These include high availability, reliability of services, and uncompromised security. At Airbus, our priority is to follow and anticipate technological trends to be ready to provide tailored solutions, perfectly adapted to our customers. Research programs like this one are powerful tools, which help to bundle resources and share know-how between key players in the public safety domain” Savunen added.