One of the interesting presentations I attended at Critical Communications World 2026 was on SWEN, the Swedish Emergency Network, being developed by the Swedish Civil Defence and Resilience Agency.
Like many European countries, Sweden is preparing for the transition from an existing narrowband TETRA network to a new generation of mission-critical broadband communications. Sweden’s current Rakel network has provided critical communications for emergency services and other public safety organisations for many years, but the future requires much more than reliable push-to-talk voice.
What caught my attention during the presentation was that SWEN is far more than simply replacing TETRA radios with 4G and 5G devices.
The programme is bringing together commercial mobile networks, dedicated spectrum, reinforced coverage, temporary and deployable coverage, mission-critical services, new devices and a long-term migration strategy. Just as importantly, it is being developed in close cooperation with the organisations and users that will eventually depend on it.
The result is one of the more interesting next-generation public safety broadband programmes currently taking shape in Europe.
The Swedish Civil Defence and Resilience Agency presenting an update on SWEN at Critical Communications World 2026. Photo: Zahid Ghadialy.
The context behind SWEN is also worth understanding. The Swedish Civil Defence and Resilience Agency has responsibility for helping society prepare for crises, heightened alert and war. Its remit goes well beyond everyday emergency response and includes broader national resilience and civil defence.
This is important because the new communications system is not being dimensioned simply for normal conditions. It must also support society during major incidents, prolonged disruption and situations in which commercial networks may be heavily congested or damaged.
The need for broadband is becoming increasingly obvious.
Public safety organisations increasingly want real-time video, access to data in the field, better situational awareness, information sharing between organisations and connectivity for new types of devices and sensors. The SWEN presentation highlighted examples such as body cameras and drones providing real-time situational awareness, ambulance personnel accessing patient information while mobile, biometric authentication, automated reporting and video evidence.
Broadband connectivity can also improve preparedness and decision-making. Real-time analytics can support operations and risk management, while images, maps, video and live data can give command centres a much broader understanding of an incident.
This is an important difference between replacing an old communications network and genuinely transforming critical communications. TETRA has been extremely successful at providing reliable mission-critical voice, but broadband connectivity creates an entirely new set of operational possibilities.
Some of the new operational capabilities that broadband connectivity can enable through SWEN. Presentation by the Swedish Civil Defence and Resilience Agency at Critical Communications World 2026. Photo: Zahid Ghadialy.
The part of the presentation that I found most interesting was Sweden’s strategy for creating what it described as a resilient and robust network.
Rather than relying on one single network or one type of infrastructure, SWEN combines several complementary layers.
The first layer is national coverage through commercial mobile networks. This allows SWEN to benefit from the extensive footprint, capacity and continued investment of public mobile operators. Mission-critical organisations, however, need priority and pre-emption so that their communications continue to work when ordinary networks become congested.
The second layer is dedicated spectrum. This provides additional capability and helps reduce the risk that mission-critical users are affected by congestion in commercial networks.
Coverage can then be reinforced by reusing and strengthening existing infrastructure or by establishing new infrastructure where necessary.
For situations where permanent coverage is insufficient, the strategy includes flexible coverage using mobile base stations and other coverage-enhancing solutions. The presentation also illustrated satellite and drone-enabled options as part of the wider toolkit for providing communications where and when they are needed.
Finally, additional resilience-enhancing measures and supplementary coverage complete the picture.
Sweden’s layered strategy for a resilient and robust emergency communications network. Presentation by the Swedish Civil Defence and Resilience Agency at Critical Communications World 2026. Photo: Zahid Ghadialy.
This layered approach is important because no single network can meet every mission-critical requirement.
Commercial mobile networks provide scale, capacity and nationwide reach. Dedicated resources improve control and resilience. Reinforced infrastructure addresses known weak spots, while deployable solutions can respond to incidents, temporary events and changing operational requirements.
The wider SWEN architecture also brings together a state-controlled core network and commercial mobile radio access networks. This gives Sweden an interesting balance between the enormous scale of public mobile infrastructure and the greater level of control required for critical communications.
It is a model that we are increasingly seeing across Europe.
Rather than building an entirely separate nationwide broadband network from scratch, public safety organisations can reuse commercial 4G and 5G infrastructure where appropriate, while adding government-controlled components, dedicated spectrum, hardened infrastructure and additional coverage where normal commercial services are not sufficient.
Of course, moving from TETARA to 4G and 5G is not something that can happen overnight.
Emergency services cannot simply switch off their existing communications system and move thousands of users to a new network on a single day. Different organisations will become ready at different times, and the new network needs to prove that it can support operational requirements before users become fully dependent on it.
This is why migration is such an important part of SWEN.
A particularly interesting update at CCW was that a pilot of the SWEN migration solution is planned to start in autumn 2026. According to the presentation, the pilot is expected to involve more than 500 devices and accessories across approximately 100 user organisations.
This is not simply a laboratory technology trial.
Participating organisations will build practical knowledge of how the migration solution, certified devices and accessories work in real operational environments. They will also provide feedback on hardware, software and usability.
The SWEN migration pilot is planned to start in autumn 2026, involving more than 500 devices and accessories and approximately 100 user organisations. Presentation at Critical Communications World 2026. Photo: Zahid Ghadialy.
That user involvement matters.
Emergency communications systems cannot be designed purely around network specifications, coverage maps and performance indicators. Devices may need to be operated while wearing gloves, in poor visibility, in extreme weather or under considerable pressure. A workflow that appears straightforward during a technology demonstration may behave very differently during a real emergency.
The Swedish approach therefore includes a much wider programme of co-creation activities. The presentation showed strategic, tactical and supplier forums, proof-of-concept activities, expert groups, validation and the pilot migration programme.
This reflects one of the most important lessons from previous public safety network programmes. Technology is only one part of the challenge. Users, processes, training and operational change are equally important.
The presentation also highlighted several factors considered critical for success. End users need to be ready and prepared. Migration has to be smooth and carefully executed. New solutions are needed to replace legacy services. High-quality standards are essential to ensure that different components work together.
Testing and certification are another key part of the programme, as is cybersecurity. Cross-border communications are also important because major incidents do not always respect national boundaries.
These points may sound obvious, but together they show why deploying a public safety broadband network is very different from launching another commercial mobile service.
The transition will take several years.
The roadmap presented at CCW divided the programme into three broad phases: establishment, migration and continued development.
Testing, pilots and validation take place during the first phase. Migration of basic services then becomes a major focus from around 2028 onwards, while extended capabilities continue to be developed and validated.
The presentation indicated that users should be migrated to the new solution for basic services around 2030. Only when the new system and the migration are sufficiently mature can decommissioning of the existing TETRA radio access network begin.
Extended services will continue to be introduced and migrated beyond the initial basic service transition.
The phased SWEN roadmap presented at Critical Communications World 2026. Photo: Zahid Ghadialy.
This long period of coexistence is essential.
Public safety organisations need continuity throughout the transition, which means the existing Rakel system and SWEN must operate alongside each other for several years. Users on different systems may still need to communicate, while control rooms, vehicles, devices and operational processes are gradually upgraded.
The scale of the challenge can also be seen from the number of procurements taking place in parallel.
At the time of the CCW presentation in June 2026, the migration solution had already been awarded and equipment for the first pilot had been procured. The RAN procurement was still ongoing, with the goal of contracting one or two mobile network operators.
Other workstreams covered the system integrator, reinforced and special coverage, Mission Critical Services, production user equipment, vehicle-mounted devices, telematics and IoT.
The presentation showed that reinforced coverage was awaiting the necessary spectrum licence, while separate work was progressing on mission-critical services and proof-of-concept activities.
The status of the main SWEN procurement activities as presented at Critical Communications World 2026. Photo: Zahid Ghadialy.
This is another reminder that a next-generation emergency network is not one procurement and not one technology.
The mobile network is only one part of a much larger ecosystem. Devices need to be certified. Mission-critical applications have to work reliably across the network. Control rooms must be upgraded. Vehicle-mounted systems and IoT devices need to be supported. Coverage needs to work in difficult locations and during major incidents.
Cybersecurity, interoperability and standards are equally important.
What I took away from the presentation at CCW is that SWEN should not really be viewed simply as a TETRA replacement project.
It is a national communications transformation programme.
The difficult part is not deploying a 5G core or connecting users to commercial radio networks. It is bringing together coverage, spectrum, priority, pre-emption, resilience, devices, mission-critical services, control rooms, cybersecurity and operational processes while maintaining existing communications throughout a multi-year transition.
I wrote about Finland’s Virve 2.0 back in 2021, and it is interesting to see how the Nordic countries are developing their own approaches to next-generation critical communications. The exact architectures and migration paths may differ, but the underlying direction is similar.
Mission-critical communications are moving beyond narrowband voice towards secure broadband platforms capable of supporting voice, data, video, analytics, connected devices and much richer situational awareness.
The key lesson, however, is that 5G alone does not create a mission-critical network.
A real mission-critical broadband service needs resilient coverage, priority and pre-emption, dedicated resources, security, interoperability, carefully selected devices, extensive testing and a long, well-managed transition.
SWEN is bringing all of these elements together, which makes it one of the more interesting critical communications programmes to follow over the next few years.
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