Security, Flexibility, Automation: Trends in Critical Infrastructure Management

Maintaining critical infrastructure and keeping communications channels open are essential for energy suppliers, particularly at a time when conflict, extreme weather and other threats could impact services.

This was a major topic of discussion at Critical Communications World (CCW), a conference hosted in Brussels from June 17 to 19 by Astrid – which operates critical infrastructure in Belgium. Comarch delegates took part in discussions with other key players in this sector, including telco and service operators, equipment manufacturers and service providers from Europe, the Middle East, the United States and Korea.

The conference identified several global trends in critical infrastructure maintenance and service delivery. Topics of discussion included cooperation between European network operators, the impact of NIS2 and DORA directives, and migration from Tetra to 5G. However, two areas stood out: the security and independence of critical infrastructure. In these contexts, the focus was on independence of resources (terrestrial and satellite), service reliability, flexibility (including scaling), quality control, and automation as a means to ensure cost efficiency.

The Role of 450 MHz Frequency in Critical Services

One trend that encompasses all of these is the use of private radio frequencies, such as 450 MHz. Formerly a voice communications band, 450 MHz is proving popular among critical infrastructure providers due to its suitability not only for mission-critical push to talk and mission-critical video capabilities, but also thanks to its potential for transmitting data to the Internet of Things for the purposes of service monitoring, maintenance, quality control, security and more. It’s a bandwidth that has become increasingly popular with large operators that have geographically dispersed resources.

With private 450 MHz licenses, critical infrastructure operators become independent from other networks. This helps them address security challenges such as access control and robustness to cyber-attacks, while ensuring they can react rapidly to incidents – regardless of what is happening with networks on other frequencies. This frequency also enhances reliability, allowing operators to ensure that their networks are durable and resilient, with appropriate built-in redundancy management to keep transmission devices, power supplies, applications and databases operational in all circumstances.

A further advantage of private 450 MHz licenses is that they give operators flexibility, particularly in the event of unforeseen circumstances or crisis situations. An important element of this is that operators can scale and allocate resources according to demand, integrating infrastructure management in a way that gives a unified view of the network in “single pane of glass” mode.

The Automation and the Future of Infrastructure Management

Finally, critical infrastructure providers are looking to utilize 450 MHz as they introduce automation for quality control and cost management. This goes further than operational costs and controls, taking into account the tools that are now becoming essential for the execution of repetitive and predictable tasks. Such tools offer full automation in these cases, while allowing the operator to take full control in the event that human decision-making or expert input become necessary.

All of the topics discussed at CCW in Belgium will be explored further at this year’s 450 MHz Alliance conference. Comarch, as an alliance member, will host the event at the company’s Kraków HQ from September 29 to October 1. The next CCW conference will be held in London, from June 16 to 18, 2026.