The Emergency Services Show 2026: Supporting Connected Frontline Operations with M2M IoT Connect

Bringing the Emergency Services Community Together in Birmingham

The Emergency Services Show returns to the NEC Birmingham on 16 and 17 September 2026, bringing together professionals from police, fire and rescue, ambulance, search and rescue, voluntary organisations and the wider public safety sector.

Taking place in Hall 5, the event will be open from 09:00 to 17:30 on Wednesday 16 September and 09:00 to 16:00 on Thursday 17 September. The show is celebrating its 20th anniversary and is expected to bring together more than 16,000 emergency services professionals and over 500 exhibitors. (Emergency Services Show 2026)

The Emergency Services Show is co-located with The Emergency Tech Show, which focuses on technologies including communications, data, cyber security, mobility, artificial intelligence and digital systems. Together, the events provide an opportunity to explore how technology can support safer, more effective and better-connected frontline operations. (Emergency Tech Show)

As emergency services continue to introduce more connected equipment, managing the devices, SIMs, carriers and data behind these deployments is becoming increasingly important.

Connected Technology Across Emergency Services

Modern emergency response depends on information moving quickly between frontline personnel, vehicles, control rooms and authorised digital platforms.

Emergency services now use a growing range of connected technologies, including:

• Vehicle telematics and GPS tracking
• Body-worn and vehicle-mounted cameras
• Mobile command units
• Rugged laptops and tablets
• Remote medical equipment
• Environmental monitoring sensors
• CCTV and temporary surveillance systems
• Asset and equipment trackers
• Lone-worker safety devices
• Routers and mobile communications equipment

Each device may use a different connectivity provider, management platform or data plan. As deployments grow, technical teams need a practical way to monitor these connections without logging into several separate systems.

Introducing M2M IoT Connect

M2M IoT Connect is a unified connectivity and device-management platform designed to bring multiple IoT carriers, SIM estates and connected devices into one central environment.

Through its Bring Your Own Carrier approach, organisations can connect their existing connectivity accounts and manage them through a single platform rather than replacing every current supplier.

The platform supports features including:

• SIM and device management
• Multi-carrier analytics
• Usage monitoring
• Automated notifications
• Anomaly detection
• Device lifecycle management
• Reporting and statistics
• Rate-plan optimisation
• Business-process automation
• Parent and child account structures

This provides technical and operational teams with a single view of their connected estate, even when devices use different networks or connectivity providers. (M2M IoT Connect)

Managing Emergency Vehicle Connectivity

Police vehicles, ambulances, fire appliances and specialist response vehicles increasingly operate as mobile connected workplaces.

A single vehicle may contain several connected systems, such as:

• GPS and telematics equipment
• Mobile data terminals
• Tablets and laptops
• Vehicle cameras
• Diagnostic systems
• Asset trackers
• Communications equipment
• Mobile routers

Managing each connection separately can become difficult across a large fleet.

M2M IoT Connect allows organisations to group devices by vehicle, team, department or geographical area. Technical teams can review data consumption, monitor connection activity and identify unusual behaviour without physically accessing every vehicle.

This can help organisations maintain visibility across their fleet while making it easier to investigate inactive devices, unexpected data usage or connectivity issues.

Multi-Network Connectivity for Moving Vehicles

Emergency vehicles may travel between cities, rural locations, major roads and temporary incident sites during a single shift.

Mobile network performance can vary considerably between these environments. A network that performs well at a control centre may provide weaker coverage at a remote incident location.

Multi-network IoT SIMs can provide access to several mobile networks, reducing reliance on one operator. This can be valuable for vehicle tracking, mobile routers, remote monitoring and other applications where equipment moves between coverage areas. (M2M IoT Connect)

M2M IoT Connect can help organisations view and manage connectivity from multiple carriers through one central interface, providing clearer visibility over a complex multi-network deployment.

Mobile Command and Temporary Incident Connectivity

Emergency operations cannot always depend on fixed broadband being available.

Major incidents, public events, temporary control centres and resilience exercises may require a connection to be established quickly at a location with limited communications infrastructure.

Suitable 4G or 5G routers can support approved equipment at locations such as:

• Temporary command centres
• Major incident sites
• Emergency rest centres
• Public events
• Mobile offices
• Remote operational areas
• Temporary healthcare facilities
• Stations awaiting fixed broadband

The connection may be used as a primary mobile service or as backup connectivity if an existing fixed line becomes unavailable.

Through M2M IoT Connect, organisations can monitor the connectivity associated with these deployments, review usage and create alerts when a device reaches a defined threshold.

Cameras and Situational Awareness

Connected cameras can provide authorised teams with additional visibility during emergency operations.

Applications may include body-worn video, vehicle-mounted cameras, temporary CCTV, thermal imaging and specialist surveillance equipment.

The Emergency Tech Show programme includes discussion of body-worn video within fire and rescue services, including how footage can be streamed back to control rooms and retained for operational learning. (Emergency Tech Show)

Camera data requirements can vary significantly. A device sending occasional images or alerts may consume relatively little data, while continuous high-resolution video can require a much larger allowance.

M2M IoT Connect can help teams monitor data usage across cameras and supporting routers, compare connectivity performance and detect unexpected consumption before it creates operational or billing problems.

GPS Tracking and Asset Management

Emergency services manage vehicles, medical equipment, rescue tools, generators, communications equipment and other valuable assets.

Connected GPS and asset trackers can provide information about:

• Current location
• Movement history
• Geofence activity
• Battery condition
• Device tampering
• Unexpected movement
• Equipment status
• Arrival and departure times

For large deployments, the challenge is not only collecting the data. Organisations must also manage the connectivity supporting every tracker.

M2M IoT Connect can organise connections by vehicle, asset type, department or operational area. Automated rules can also be created to identify inactive devices or unusual changes in data usage.

Environmental and Remote Monitoring

Connected sensors can help emergency services and resilience teams monitor conditions without requiring personnel to remain at every location.

Possible applications include:

• Flood and water-level monitoring
• Temperature monitoring
• Air-quality sensors
• Smoke and fire detection
• Structural monitoring
• Generator and battery status
• Equipment-storage monitoring
• Weather stations
• Building alarms
• Remote medical monitoring

Many sensors send small amounts of data at regular intervals or only transmit when a threshold is reached.

Centralised management helps organisations distinguish between normal low-data activity and a device that may have stopped communicating. Notifications can be configured to alert the relevant team when unusual behaviour is detected.

Automated Alerts and Anomaly Detection

Manually checking thousands of connections is not practical.

M2M IoT Connect supports notifications and anomaly detection, allowing organisations to create rules around data usage, device behaviour and subscription status.

For example, the platform could help identify:

• A device using considerably more data than expected
• A SIM that has stopped transmitting
• A connection approaching its usage limit
• Unusual roaming activity
• A subscription requiring action
• A sudden change in device behaviour
• An inactive or potentially faulty tracker

These alerts can help technical teams investigate potential issues before they affect a wider deployment. (M2M IoT Connect)

Supporting Secure and Controlled Deployments

Emergency service technology may process sensitive operational, vehicle, location and incident information.

The full solution should therefore be designed around the organisation’s security policies, authorised systems and data-protection requirements.

Connectivity may be combined with measures such as:

• Private APNs
• VPN connections
• Fixed or private IP addressing
• Restricted internet access
• IP whitelisting
• Approved endpoint access
• Usage controls
• Device-level monitoring

M2M IoT Connect adds a central management layer, helping authorised teams maintain visibility over connections from multiple providers and apply consistent management processes across the device estate.

A Single View of Connected Operations

One of the main challenges facing large IoT deployments is fragmentation.

Different departments may purchase equipment from different suppliers, use separate mobile carriers or manage devices through individual portals. This can make it difficult to understand overall performance, costs and usage.

M2M IoT Connect provides a single pane of glass for managing connected devices and connectivity accounts.

Rather than replacing existing suppliers, organisations can bring supported carrier and device information into one environment. This can provide clearer reporting, more consistent controls and improved oversight across departments, vehicles and locations. (M2M IoT Connect)

Preparing for the Future of Emergency Technology

The Emergency Services Show and The Emergency Tech Show will provide an opportunity to explore how digital systems, communications, connected devices and data are changing emergency response.

As more equipment becomes connected, emergency services need an effective way to manage the connectivity behind every vehicle, router, camera, sensor and tracking device.

M2M IoT Connect helps organisations bring multiple carriers and connected-device platforms together, providing centralised monitoring, automation, reporting and lifecycle management.

From a small connected-device project to a large multi-carrier deployment, the platform can help organisations understand and control their IoT estate through one unified environment.

Contact M2M IoT Connect to discover how unified connectivity and device management could support your emergency service technology deployment.