Describing the company in a statement, a TCCA spokesperson said: “Globally, BT supports more than 1.2 million businesses and public sector organisations and over 32 million consumer customers. Defence, central government, emergency services, the NHS, critical power and water agencies, all depend on BT.” The company also facilitates the UK’s emergency call handling service, dealing with – again, according to TCCA - over 39 million 999/112 calls a year.
Discussing the move, BT’s managing director of ESN, Richard Harrap, said: “We’re delighted to join the TCCA and share our extensive EE and BT expertise. This has been established over many years [of] delivering critical national infrastructure and mission critical services.
"As one of the world’s first organisations to integrate mission critical voice and broadband services over a commercial LTE network, we’ve learned [much] that could benefit other nations as they embark upon similar journeys. Through our TCCA membership we can collaborate, learn from how others approach critical communications, and continue to drive standards forward for the benefit of the industry. “
TCCA CEO Kevin Graham said: “The strategy of many governments to deliver mission critical broadband to their essential agencies is through partnering with existing telecom operators. TCCA are very pleased to welcome BT to our global membership, given their involvement in the UK ESN, and other services and solutions they provide into critical user organisations that are essential to the ecosystem.”
