INSIGHT

A Private Cellular Network in an emergency is imperative in keeping critical communications active. The key is making sure staff do what is required and planned for, to protect the people and minimise the risk of harm/danger as much as possible and often to allow operations to continue, and they can’t do this if they cannot communicate.

During all incidents, network usage increases dramatically, causing issues for the network.  For certain events, such as those with a suspected terror link, police will cut the network to the entire area to reduce the risk of remote activation of explosive devices.  At the same time, understandably, people are lost inside the building and may have to make fast decisions (even a decision to stay put) based on no information or, worse, the information provided by perpetrators.

A private cellular network remains functioning, for all staff, during such times and is available to use on their phone.  Robust and secure network(s) can be created to support your contingency communication plan in a significant incident.  This means that you can effectively communicate with your staff within the building or campus, despite the public mobile network being switched off.  Voice calls, video calls,  email and messaging will still function, so whatever the incident,  everyone can be kept informed by trusted parties using agreed protocols.

The private cellular network in such an event uses existing apps/software for regular calls, i.e. what is used outside of the incident for communication (from the regular phone or messaging function to WhatsApp, Signal, Teams or Facetime) OR the private cellular network in such an event moves to either existing apps or for predetermined apps in the event of an event, allowing staff to function normally when the incident is not in their building. Still, the incident has either impaired the mobile network or shut it down.

Communication is possible from people outside the private cellular network to people inside the private cellular network; the system will seamlessly integrate with the local PBX (Private Branch Exchange) within your building, allowing users to contact people outside the internal private cellular network.

For those offsite, voice calls and video calls using dedicated apps / existing apps are possible because the user experience between public or private networks is no different.  Police and emergency services can contact those inside the private cellular network via mobile phones because the private cellular network can integrate with the building’s PBX.  Video calls, or indeed functionality of all apps using the network, can be restricted in the event of an emergency to all critical calls to the critical security people or line managers with responsibility for safety, i.e. strict communication lines can be predetermined to ensure people can react to the emergency as swiftly as possible with the minimum of “noise” impending the security of all staff and visitors to the building.

This is an extract from the Guardian newspaper; you can see the full article here

“Close to the hostage sites, the security forces have already deployed jammers to render the terrorists’ GSM and 3G phones – and other wireless devices – unusable. To extend control over the whole network, the Cabinet Office instructs licensed phone operators to restrict calls to numbers registered in advance. Under the telephone preference scheme, a condition of operating licences, this can be done at the flick of a switch. No public announcement is made; frustrated Londoners trapped behind security cordons and trying desperately to phone home assume that the network is overloaded.”

That article was written in 2008, and the cabinet office has put it into action on numerous occasions since blocking the mobile phone signals stops improvised explosive devices from being remotely detonated; this happened on the 29^th November 2019 on London Bridge,  it caused havoc at the local hospital as the management team had come to rely on WhatsApp groups to manage their staffing requirements.  So once the mobile network local to the incident was locked down (during a major incident),  the hospital couldn’t use the public cellular network to call in extra staff or manage their resources. This is a prime example of where a Private Cellular Network within the hospital would have been ideal for central incident management.

To discuss how a PCN could benefit your organisation on a day to day basis and provide the ultimate incident communication solution please get in touch.