About

The ecosystem of Mission Critical (MC) communication over mobile networks generates a new market paradigm for B2B solutions, where potential customers are not only first responders but also other industries, including transport, utilities, and industrial plants. This is a huge widening for the target market compared to the conventional TETRA or P25 solutions. According to forecasts, the global mission critical communication market will reach $32.6 billion by 2028, growing with 9.8% CAGR. The market of advanced public safety communication through mobile networks emerges fast for two main reasons: First, public safety communications are by their very nature highly mobile and they have gained significant productivity benefits by using mobile broadband. Second, the building and maintenance of a dedicated network such as TETRA or P25 is complex, is time consuming and costly, and PSAs (Public Safety Agencies) have acknowledged the better ability of mobile networks to meet their communications (voice and data) FOGUS targets to play a key role in this emerging market. To strengthen its future position to this market, seeks for bilateral collaborations and it has also started the dissemination of the solution in targeted pilot/demo events.

Solution & Product

FOGUS targets to provide a holistic public safety and mission critical solution (FOGUS MC) that complies with the most recent features standardized in 3GPP (Rel.15) for mission critical communications, namely, MCVideo and MCData. MCVideo refers to MC video communication services and provides features such as i) real-time operating capabilities, iii) highly secured operations for private and group communications, and iv) handling of emergencies and prioritization. MCData refers to services such as short instant messaging (private/group), file sharing and location sharing for mission critical data operations and provides features such as data and resource management. The FOGUS MC includes: the client-side mobile app and the support system (i.e., the Application Server and a set of Management Servers). The major advantages of the FOGUS solution are: i) it enables public safety communications through conventional mobile phones ii) it expands the critical communication potential to video and data sharing services.

Innovation & Scalability

FOGUS primary activity relates to Research and Innovation (FOGUS is member of EU Research and Innovation consortia and associations (e.g., 5GPPP https://5g-ppp.eu/, Network Europe https://www.networldeurope.eu/) and aims at a commercial exploitation of its public safety and critical communication solution. In this context, FOGUS has managed so far to fulfill three main innovation shaping requirements, namely, i)tProduction and use of results from R&D activities. The company has provided vast contribution to the production of innovative research results that is now ready to exploit them through commercial products. ii)tCombination of existing state-of-the-art technologies. FOGUS adopts cutting-edge development features to produce the FOGUS MC solution (continuous integration and continuous delivery- CI/CD, cloud services etc.). For instance, the server-side components are designed as NFV components, fostering agile and flexible deployments towards 5G. iii)tDevelopment of a new business model. FOGUS is one of the few SMEs that enters the emerging market of mission critical communication through mobile networks. The adopted technology encompasses the most recent features standardised by 3GPP.

Traction & achievements

FOGUS is a young company (founded in 2016) that thrives fast. A stable financial growth is observed so far with key achievements/milestones: -tContinuous participation in big consortia composed of leading companies and research centers in the field of wireless communication (starting from June 2018). -tMembership in EU associations and SDOs (5GPPP TB, ETSI) -tCo-authoring of position papers released by 5G Infrastructure Association. Based on the background achieved so far, and especially the expertise on related technology standards, the company schedules to launch in the marker a complete and solid mission critical solution, starting with the FOGUS MC App and cloud instances of the FOGUS MC service suite.

Team & Why Us

The growth potential of FOGUS is coupled with the scaling-out trend that is now observed to similar companies in Europe. More precisely, the following aspects contribute to a stable growth of FOGUS in the coming years. -tThe company encompasses both the telecom/ICT sector and the public safety domain. This is a key advantage (and a necessary asset) for providing MC services. -tThe business/financial figures for the SMEs in the ICT sector are quite encouraging. The added value of SMEs in the ICT sector in EU is currently around 75%, while the SME employment is growing faster than the overall employment the recent years. It is also clear, that a slow realization pace of the paradigm shift from conventional public safety communication to advanced MC services is a factor that might slow the penetration of the FOGUS product in the market. This might affect the growth of the company, as well. However, 5G mobile networks are evolving and they are expected to support Mission critical communications in the next years. More precisely, starting from 2020, and progressively till 2024, there will be the possibility for a mission critical network with full standalone 5G functionality using only the 5G radio interface.

Funding Needs

The minimum funding needs are estimated at around 200K Euro/year that could efficiently cover the following categories of costs: - Solution design and development - Customer support services - Marketing and dissemination activities