Technavio’s latest report on the global mobile broadband in public safety market provides an analysis on the most important trends expected to impact the market outlook from 2016-2020. Technavio defines an emerging trend as a factor that has the potential to significantly impact the market and contribute to its growth or decline.
Rakesh Kumar Panda, a lead analyst from Technavio, specialising in research on M2M and connected devices sector, says, “Due to the bandwidth limitations of the traditional voice-centric LMR networks, public safety agencies are interested in leveraging commercial cellular network technology to support the growing requirement of broadband applications. Considering its booming network, spectrum flexibility, and performance metrics, LTE has emerged as the leading entrant for public safety mobile broadband networks.”
The top four emerging trends driving the global mobile broadband in public safety market according to Technavio ICT research analysts are:
- Interoperability of technology among public safety networks
- Convergence of LTE networks with LMR technology
- Enhanced VoLTE device batteries
- Increasing demand for mobility
- Interoperability of technology among public safety networks
“The interoperability of long-term evolution technology enables the exchange, interpretation, and sharing of data by multiple entities. Public safety solutions that use old equipment running on outdated technology can increase the maintenance cost. The increase in criminal activities and security breaches has led to a rise in the demand for a reliable technology to function efficiently in mission-critical public safety applications,” according to Panda.
The need for communication systems with a wide network coverage has increased over the years. Such systems enable seamless communication with other nearby communication networks. Currently, LTE is in its developmental stage in most telecom companies worldwide. With the expansion of interoperable LTE networks, the demand for this technology will increase over the forecast period. For example, Harris LTE offers crucial first response interoperability across cellular carrier, broadband, and LMR communications.
Land mobile radio LMR system transmits voice through circuit switching technology, whereas voice over LTE VoLTE is carried as VoIP packets. During the forecast period, LTE will deliver voice services over an information management system IMS that will transfer voice more effectively than the LMR network. Also, the emergence of LTE for tactical communication is focused toward mobile broadband data.
The integration of the features of LTE with LMR system capabilities will benefit public safety LTE users by reducing response time, delivering real-time information sharing, and permitting the transmission of complex voice and video data. However, building a public safety LTE network is a complex and time-consuming process.
LTE, in terms of data application, allows access to critical information directly from the field. It acts as an advantage for commercial operators as they can transmit heavy data traffic from their voice-based 2G and 3G services efficiently. LTE improves the data capabilities of a network to handle the unbound accessibility to data and communications.
VoLTE is built on a high level of architecture and offers operators many operational benefits and cost savings. It eliminates the requirement for voice and data on separate networks and creates new revenue potential with video calls over LTE multimedia services and rich communication services RCS.
“Emergency services involve citizen-to-authority communications that are usually associated with emergencies or life-threatening scenarios. These emergency calls are typically routed to the public safety answering point that provides the updated location of the mobile device from where the emergency call was initiated,” asserts Panda.
Demand for connectivity is growing rapidly, and that is in-turn, creating an added pressure on mobile broadband operators to facilitate a capable satellite network infrastructure. Aviation sector is heavily depending on SatCom connectivity for automated flight operations and on-board Wi-Fi or mobile usage to cater increasing customer demand. Users have been provided robust communications-on-the-move solutions through SatCom that gives access to a wide variety of applications and services with high efficiency.
According to Technavio’s market research analysts, the global mobile broadband market in public safety sector is projected to grow at a CAGR of more than 8% during the forecast period 2016-2020. The emergence of long-term evolution LTE technology in the public safety domain is the primary growth driver for this market. LTE technology is gaining traction owing to the increase in the number of users and the need for high-speed data applications.
Several governments across the globe are also increasing their expenditure on the LTE technology to facilitate the sharing of complex real-time data. The high bandwidth of this technology enables a user working in a remote terrestrial site to share and access real-time data immediately. With the growing acceptance of LTE technology, the public safety networks can respond to the surging requirements for fast, reliable voice, and data connectivity with a guaranteed security.
The Americas is the largest region in the market and occupied around 60% of the total market share in 2015. The major factor contributing to the growth of the market in the Americas is the awareness and presence of public safety technologies in North America. High penetration of LTE networks helps consumers to use fast mobile broadband services. The increased growth in infrastructure and development in wireless technologies will significantly contribute to the growth of the market in the Americas in the coming years.
The global mobile broadband in public safety market is extremely competitive owing to the entry of new vendors and the continuously evolving technology. It is also a highly fragmented market, with surplus players and suppliers giving customers various options to choose from. Vendors compete in the market based on innovation, performance, product features, quality, and technology. To sustain themselves in the intensely competitive scenario, the players need to incorporate latest technologies in their offerings.
The report identifies players like Digisat, General Dynamics Mission, Harris, Motorola, Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Huawei, Thales, ZTE, ATandT, Iridium, and Verizon to be the key vendors in the global mobile broadband market in public safety sector. This research report also presents a detailed segmentation of the market by end-users, solution, and application of public sector. This report also outlines the market shares of key regions that include the Americas, APAC, and EMEA.
Other prominent vendors in the mobile broadband market in public safety sector include Airbus, Airspan Networks, Alvarion, Cisco, Firetide, Gilat, Ground Control Systems, IBM, Lockheed Martin, Mesh Dynamics, NetMotion Wireless, Nokia Siemens Networks, Northrop Grumman, and Tata Advanced Systems.
The public sector segment in the mobile broadband market in public safety sector will experience significant growth during the forecast period and is likely to register a growth rate of around 8%. The market in the public sector is categorised on the basis of mobile broadband applications for public safety and includes segments like video surveillance, natural calamity and disaster management, GIS, medical telemetry, and vehicle surveillance.
Government organisations are helping service providers to deploy LTE networks, and develop network and infrastructure for wireless technology broadband. Moreover, the emerging technologies such as LTE and worldwide interoperability for microwave access will boost the growth of this segment in the coming years.
The network and infrastructure equipment segment dominated the mobile broadband market in public safety sector during 2015 and accounted for around 60% of the total market share. Network and infrastructure equipment consists of broadband aggregation equipment, IP routers, IP voice infrastructure, optical equipment, video infrastructure, TDM voice infrastructure, wireless infrastructure, and other telecom/datacom network equipment.
The segment will continue to dominate the market in the coming years as huge networks and infrastructure are required to save people and maintain public safety, such as emergency calling, fire service, police service, disaster management, decreasing terrorism threats, and maintaining traffic.
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