Athonet, Crosscall and Qualcomm join forces to accelerate digital transformation in public safety with B68 band

An end-to-end ecosystem to help governments and organizations make the most of frequency thanks to complete portable solutions

BOLZANO VICENTINO, Italy, March 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- More and more governments in Europe are undergoing a digital transformation across their public safety agencies. Band 68 is a dedicated frequency that can be used to support emergency management and other public safety use cases with critical private mobile radio (PMR) communications.

Despite the band availability, its full potential has not yet been realized and a multi-vendor product approach can help meet the challenging needs of these use cases and accelerate the agencies' digital transformation.

By combining Athonet's mission critical portable solutions and Crosscall's ruggedized smartphones and tablets, which utilize IoT solutions from Qualcomm Technologies Inc., Athonet can realize an end-to-end offering for this band-from network to the end user device.

Thanks to this collaboration, public safety agencies can utilize a complete portable tactical solution with full use of band 68 for various critical PMR communications. This offering is enabled by the Athonet Tactical Backpack ATB-68, Athonet Tactical Cube ATC-68, Crosscall X-COMM remote speaker microphone, Crosscall X-VIBES bone conduction headphones and Crosscall CORE-Z5 smartphone, which utilizes the Qualcomm® QCM6490 SoC.

During the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Athonet will showcase the Athonet Tactical Backpack ATB-68 in Hall 5, stand 5J65.

"Being able to guarantee portable tactical solutions with the Athonet Tactical Backpack ATB-68 and Athonet Tactical Cube ATC-68 is the result of years of research and constant improvement of our solutions. We have been working alongside organizations, ministries and security services for years to meet their needs related to communication and connectivity systems and this solution is an important milestone, both for us and for our customers.

"The collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies and Crosscall was fundamental in arriving at the definition of this solution and we are sure that even in the near future new products and services can arise from this collaborative work capable of responding to the ever-increasing needs of the public safety and critical PMR communications world," said Massimiliano Gianesin, Director, Special Projects, Athonet.

"Crosscall supports the public safety community with devices that are designed to work in all environments and meet all critical communication requirements. We have developed solutions, including terminals but also a whole system of highly technical accessories operating on the very high speed 4G/5G network, which allow us to accompany the public safety sector in the transformation of use that it is facing.

"The collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies and the integration of the Qualcomm QCM6490 processor on our latest smartphone, the CORE-Z5, is a real innovation at the service of this transformation: it is the first smartphone compatible with band 68. Working with Athonet and Qualcomm Technologies allows us to offer a complete solution that meets the current and future challenges of critical communication world," said Denis Thayanithy, Director, Solution Engineering & Global Partnership, Crosscall.

"Qualcomm Technologies is helping to drive the digital transformation of industries, enabling more intelligent IoT devices at the edge, and public safety is no exception," said Sebastiano Di Filippo, Senior Director, Business Development, Qualcomm Europe, Inc. "It's exciting to see Athonet and Crosscall utilize the availability of band 68 with the CORE-Z5 to deliver critical PMR communications. Powered by the Qualcomm QCM6490, the CORE-Z5 benefits from the processor's premium tier features, including 5G, WiFi-6E and band 68 connectivity compatibility, and powerful on-device AI and compute performance. This growing ecosystem of products will help to address new use cases in public safety."

Qualcomm branded products are products of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries. Qualcomm patented technologies are licensed by Qualcomm Incorporated.

Qualcomm is a trademark or registered trademark of Qualcomm Incorporated.

About Athonet
Athonet is a leader in private cellular network technology delivering a mobile core to enterprises and communication service providers to connect applications, devices and radios. With more than 15 years of experience in delivering 4G/5G mobile core solutions to customers and partners in every region of the world, Athonet supports key industries where network control, mobility, security, performance, and cost are important for business outcomes. Find out more www.athonet.com.

About Crosscall
Crosscall, the creator of durable mobile telephony, offers waterproof, ruggedized and long-lasting mobiles and smartphones. The company was created in 2009 by Cyril Vidal to respond to specific needs and uses that he himself was confronted with and for which no specific equipment existed. The brand thus designs models perfectly adapted to the hostile and unpredictable environments encountered by sportsmen and professionals in the field (water, rain, wind, humidity, dust, shocks...); as well as a range of high-performance accessories. Crosscall has extensive expertise in mission-critical and business critical communication and provides solutions that are perfectly suited to both public and private security actors. With more than 3.5 million units sold, a turnover of 134.3 M€ and already more than 20,000 points of sale, the French company, based in Aix-en-Provence, continues to evolve by upgrading its increasingly recognized for their quality and originality in France and abroad.

About Qualcomm 
Qualcomm is enabling a world where everyone and everything can be intelligently connected. Our one technology roadmap allows us to efficiently scale the technologies that launched the mobile revolution – including advanced connectivity, high-performance, low-power compute, on-device intelligence and more – to the next generation of connected smart devices across industries. Innovations from Qualcomm and our family of Snapdragon platforms will help enable cloud-edge convergence, transform industries, accelerate the digital economy, and revolutionize how we experience the world, for the greater good.

Qualcomm Incorporated includes our licensing business, QTL, and the vast majority of our patent portfolio. Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, operates, along with its subsidiaries, substantially all of our engineering, research and development functions, and substantially all of our products and services businesses, including our QCT semiconductor business. Snapdragon and Qualcomm branded products are products of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries. Qualcomm patented technologies are licensed by Qualcomm Incorporated.

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