The public service networks that contribute to security and rescue missions are often grouped together under the acronym PPDR (Public Protection & Disaster Relief). In France, these networks are managed by the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of the Interior and the ARCEP, and are used by the police (including municipal police forces), the fire brigade, ambulance services, and the authorities in charge of roads, waterways, ports and shipping. They are partially grouped together in the INPT network, "Infrastructure Nationale Partageable des Transmissions". PPDR networks currently use narrowband technologies, especially in the 400 MHz band, and their modernisation is imperative to meet new demands for high-speed services for the development of security and emergency networks. The same applies to the professional networks also deployed in the 400 MHz band, which must meet the need for higher speeds and Internet of Things-type communications.
To meet their needs for high-speed mobile transmissions, the Ministries of Defence and the Interior have jointly decided to set up a common infrastructure network by 2020/2025 in successive stages, with additional spectrum requirements estimated at 2x10 MHz.
To limit the cost of deploying those networks, LTE technology, which is widely used in networks open to the public, has been selected. To guarantee a sufficient level of harmonisation so that PPDR deployments on dedicated networks use the same frequencies in European countries, the CEPT adopted Decision ECC(16)02 harmonising two frequency bands:
- The 400 MHz band, which includes the 410-430 MHz and 450-470 MHz sub-bands;
- The 700 MHz band, with two blocks of 2x3 MHz and 2x5 MHz assigned to the Ministry of the Interior