Airbus celebrates inventive spirits of communication solutions

Elancourt/Dubai, 17 October 2018 –  The unique and first “Critical App Challenge for the Middle East and North Africa” has ended with an award ceremony at the Gitex exhibition in Dubai this week. 

An independent jury picked four outstanding applications for the Tactilon Dabat which were developed for public safety and industries in the Middle East.

Among the 40 companies which participated in the online contest, the companies BRAQ Aerospace LLC (Saudi Arabia), Delta Smart Technologies (Turkey), epic.blue (Belgium) and Steerpath (Finland) presented the most convincing app solutions.  

The Challenge was to find the best digital communication solutions for various industry staff, policemen, firefighters or paramedics who need specialised professional apps for their regions in North Africa and the Middle East. The applications can be used on the Airbus device Tactilon Dabat, a smartphone and Tetra radio in one.

40 companies proposed new ideas to Airbus within a limited amount of time in the past weeks. They had to hand in the proofs of concept of their product idea. The independent jury consisted of seven representatives from the telecommunication companies Nedaa and MOTECO, the Dubai Police, Dubai Civil Defence, and Airbus. Airbus supported and initiated the entire event.

“This pioneering App Challenge for this vast region triggered a spirit of ingenuity in the app developer community. Airbus provides the right platform to gather those ideas and bring them to the regional public safety markets,” says Selim Bouri, Vice-President and Head of Middle East, North Africa and Asia-Pacific for Secure Land Communications at Airbus.

According to the Airbus prerequisites, all participants of the Critical App have cooperation possibilities with the company and can register for the company’s SmartTWISP programme. Those who are interested in becoming a partner of this program can check out the “Secure Land Communications” website.

 They will find a starter kit which helps make new mission-critical applications. Once approved for a free membership, subscribers can access guidelines, tools and the application programming interface (API). Furthermore, members benefit from special training, tools, and reward schemes.

Airbus

Airbus is a global leader in aeronautics, space and related services. In 2017 it generated revenues of € 67 billion and employed a workforce of around 129,000. Airbus offers the most comprehensive range of passenger airliners from 100 to more than 600 seats. Airbus is also a European leader providing tanker, combat, transport and mission aircraft, as well as one of the world’s leading space companies. In helicopters, Airbus provides the most efficient civil and military rotorcraft solutions worldwide.

Secure Land Communications (www.securelandcommunications.com)

Secure Land Communications (SLC), an Airbus business unit, offers advanced communication and collaboration solutions to gather, process and deploy intelligence. Its portfolio is tailored to the needs of Public Safety, Defence and Transport, Utility and Industry (TUI). It includes infrastructures, devices, applications and services based on Tetra, Tetrapol and Broadband technologies (either single, hybrid or multi-technology solutions). As the European leader and a key international player, SLC has customers in more than 80 countries and employs around 1,150 people in 17 countries.

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