Mission Boost: BT's Service for Emergency Mobile Connection

When a medical emergency unfolds across a region or hospital systems are managing a crisis response, dependable mobile connectivity matters as much as clinical equipment. During those events, network congestion can restrict access to patient records and slow coordination between medical teams.

BT Business has launched Mission Boost to address that problem. The service gives organisations delivering essential services prioritised access across EE's national 4G and 5G networks.

The launch is the first capability within BT's broader MissionNet portfolio, a suite of services aimed at organisations operating in mission-critical environments where communications resilience is a core operational requirement.​​​​​​​

Mobile access for healthcare providers

Healthcare providers depend on mobile networks to coordinate patient transfers, access electronic health records and maintain contact with field-based paramedics and community care teams.

As mobile data usage continues to grow and clinical workforces become dependent on connected devices, ensuring communications remain available during periods of network strain has become a growing priority for trusts and ambulance services.

Mission Boost addresses that challenge by enabling traffic prioritisation across EE's commercial mobile network.

The capability is intended to help organisations maintain connectivity and situational awareness during incidents or periods of unusually high demand, so critical communications can continue even when networks are congested.

Expanding mission-critical communications

The service forms part of BT's wider strategy to expand its proposition for organisations with high resilience requirements.

Faisal Mahomed, Managing Director, Critical Communications at BT, says: "Organisations delivering critical services are operating in increasingly complex environments, where reliable communications are a must.

"Mission Boost is designed to provide the connectivity and capabilities that organisations need to operate with confidence – and marks an important first step as BT looks to roll out a range of enhanced new mission-critical services."

Alongside connectivity services, MissionNet will combine cloud infrastructure, security capabilities and partner technologies intended to support operational environments where uptime and resilience are paramount. BT says the portfolio has been developed for sectors including emergency response, transport and critical national infrastructure operators, where communications failures can have operational consequences.

For healthcare providers, the technology could support ambulance dispatch coordination, remote patient monitoring during major incidents and continuity of care when hospital systems experience network congestion during emergency surges.

Early deployment in essential services

One of the first organisations to deploy the prioritisation capability is UK Power Networks, which operates electricity infrastructure across London, the South East and the East of England.

Kieran Coughlan, Director of Asset Management at UK Power Networks, says: "We are delighted to enter into a partnership with BT to deliver prioritised mobile communications.

"Reliable communications are an essential component of a healthy electricity network. This partnership will deliver even greater resilience for our customers.

“EE’s multi-layer resilience will enable us to stay in contact with key field staff even when the communications network is congested and access tools that helps us understand the health of the cellular network to support power restoration in event of an outage.”

Power continuity matters for healthcare facilities, where backup generators depend on fuel supplies and extended outages can compromise patient care in hospitals, care homes and facilities supporting vulnerable populations.

Mission Boost is the first component of the MissionNet platform, with future capabilities expected to include contact management tools and push-to-talk applications.

Push-to-talk functionality could support hospital security teams, facilities management and clinical staff coordinating patient flow during emergency department surges.

The launch is part of BT's wider investment programme across UK telco infrastructure.

The company is investing £40bn (US$53bn) between 2020 and 2030 to upgrade fixed and mobile networks, supporting growing connectivity requirements across public and private sector organisations.