INDUSTRY INTERVIEW: Ericsson Federal Inc.
MIT 2009 Volume: 13 Issue: 10 (November)
Douglas C. Smith
President and Chief Executive Officer
Ericsson Federal Inc. (EFI)
Q: How does Ericsson Federal Inc. fit into the Ericsson organization?
A: Ericsson is a global leader in communications technologies, including wireless and broadband, and EFI represents the unit of Ericsson that services the U.S. government. EFI is helping the government and military utilize broadband and wireless technologies to help address key communications challenges. We work closely with our end-user community at the Department of Defense, civilian and state and local agencies and the intelligence community, as well as our integration partners to ensure we’re effectively addressing the government’s needs and requirements. One of the benefits of working with EFI is that we are able to tap into our parent company’s $5 billion annual research and development knowledge base, and can deliver this expertise and insight to our public sector customers and partners.
Q: What are some of the most critical communications challenges the government and military are asking EFI to help them address?
A: If you go back 20 years, the government custom-built a lot of IT solutions; yet today in IT, you see the public sector taking advantage of commercial IT solutions in their environments to lower cost and shorten development time. However, that same shift has been much slower when it comes to the government incorporating commercial communications solutions and technologies. Today we’re hearing very strongly from our government customers that they are looking to leverage the currently available commercial wireline, wireless and broadband technologies and communications solutions, as well as the research and development investment from Ericsson. To simplify this process, EFI is packaging a number of different solutions— for example, broadband networking solutions—that are specifically programmed for certain agencies’ needs.
Q: How is EFI helping the warfighter?
A: EFI is working with our military customers to deliver full speed, high definition voice, data and video to the warfighter. There is a huge demand for broadband and a recognized need to move video around in both war fighting situations and homeland security situations, as well as for operational requirements within the enterprise.
The military has realized it can work with a company like EFI that has these technologies and capabilities available today, and they can take advantage of commercially available solutions to bridge this communications gap. In fact, they are utilizing exercises like Empire Challenge to see the commercial technology in action and to allow its vendor partners to demonstrate how their solutions can be used in real-world battlefield situations.
The gap in communications capabilities is particularly evident for today’s warfighter, who is accustomed while at home to using mobile devices and technologies and has experienced how voice, data and video can be viewed, created and shared in real-time. Once soldiers are deployed and on the battlefield, they now have this expectation that the same kinds of capabilities should be made available to them, and they realize that this kind of connectivity is needed while in theater. Unfortunately, in some battlefield situations, warfighters are using 20-year-old communications technologies, even though they are fighting against insurgents leveraging the most modern and advanced communications technologies available.
EFI has the technology to keep the military one step ahead of the bad guys, and we’re working closely with DoD to help them incorporate cost-effective, advanced solutions today—not 10 years down the road.
Q: What can you tell us about EFI’s participation in last summer’s Empire Challenge?
A: The U.S. Joint Forces Command [USJFCOM] approached EFI looking for our assistance in addressing specific challenges with video. They wanted us to demonstrate how to collect and analyze incoming video feeds and then deliver video to the warfighter. We took USJFCOM’s requirements, leveraged the R&D investments from our parent company, and presented a solution that effectively addressed their requirements incorporating technology solutions available for use today.
Specifically, EFI demonstrated our 3G tactical network, QuicLINK, which provides all of the components for a 3G wireless network to deliver high-speed voice, video and data and can be deployed in support of multidomain tactical environments. At Empire Challenge, QuicLINK was deployed at the tactical operations center, aboard aircraft and watercraft, and with tactical operations vehicles. The 3G network is essential for collecting and distributing full motion video, imagery and data. And with the integration of IP multimedia services into a situational awareness environment, EFI provided location knowledge of tactical users, voice, text chat, video calling and map-based white board collaboration for communications between the tactical edge and the tactical operations centers.
USJFCOM and DoD are analyzing the results of Empire Challenge and will likely continue to explore how to utilize and incorporate currently available technology to help them address their communications needs. EFI will continue to partner with DoD to deliver the communications technologies and solutions they need for today’s challenges, as well as future requirements. ♦
