The Global Certification Forum (GCF) has taken one step further in advancing its Mission Critical Services (MCS) Certification Programme by successfully verifying MCPTT Field Trials test cases.

Led by IoTAS, the UK based MCS accredited GCF Field Trial Recognised Test Organisation (FT-RTO), this multi-stage project involved execution of the MCPTT test cases defined in the GSMA TS.11 Device Field and Lab Test Guidelines Annex N, over the UK’s Emergency Services Network (ESN), as well as the Frequentis private network.

Utilising GCF certified smartphones, test SIMs, MCS Clients and MCS Servers  managed by ESN and Frequentis, the project demonstrated how multi-stakeholder cooperation can successfully advance new technology testing and certification prior to these solutions being commercialised in the market. Output of this project is being used to further refine the MCS test cases and ensure all the elements needed for activation of MCS Field Trials in the MCS Certification Programme are in place.

MCS Field Trials is a key project being developed jointly by GCF and TCCA in the GCF Mission Critical Services Workstream (MCSWS), that checks functional interoperability of MCS Clients and Devices against various commercially deployed 4G and 5G public safety and critical communications networks.

While MCS Conformance Testing ensures compliance to the 3GPP industry standards, Field Trials testing ensures real world implementations that are conforming to the standards, can additionally demonstrate seamless connectivity, functionality and communication across multiple systems. This allows GCF’s Mission Critical Communications Operator members (MCCOs) to have the confidence in the GCF certified products they are planning to procure for both internal user trials, and ultimately for deployment as the global migration to 3GPP MCX Broadband continues.

It is expected that MCS Field Trials will be activated in the MCS certification programme by the end of 2026, following an update on GSMA TS.11 Test Specifications and once access for testing orgnisations to Mission Critical Communications Networks for testing becomes available.

Future phases of MCS Field Trials testing will include additional functionalities such as newer releases of 3GPP MCPTT, MCData, MCVideo, Location Services testing, eMBMS/5G-MBS, NTN, and connection to MCS Control Rooms and Interworking Functions (IWF).

All product manufacturers looking to certify their MCS implementation are required to successfully pass both Conformance Testing and either Field Trials Interoperability or Lab Interoperability Testing to get GCF MCS Certified.

Meet GCF at CCW 2026 at the ExCeL London from June 16th to 18th or contact: mcs@globalcertificationforum.org for more information on Mission Critical certification.