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Report: Wireless broadband essential for public safety

Report provides recommendations toward adoption, application of long-term evolution (LTE) wireless broadband technology for public safety

A new report on wireless broadband found that it is essential for addressing mission-critical needs requiring high data throughput for applications such as biometric identification, mobile incident command, geospatial information systems, and more.

The report provides recommendations toward the adoption and application of long-term evolution (LTE) wireless broadband technology by public safety organizations from a global perspective.

One of the key findings in the report is that situational awareness applications are leading the push toward public safety LTE.

In addition, by 2015, it is estimated that more than 4.26 million public safety personnel will have access to LTE for public safety applications.

According to the report, Motorola Solutions has the highest public safety LTE market share (46 percent) among major industry players, with estimated revenue of $112 million in 2011 and $307 million in 2015.

Other major market players have been highlighted in the survey including Alcatel-Lucent, Cassidian (EADS owned), Harris, IP-Wireless, Raytheon, Tait, Ericsson, Verizon Wireless, and Nokia Siemens Networks.

Other key findings include:

• A partnership between Motorola Solutions and Verizon Wireless will trigger the adoption of publically accessible commercial LTE networks for public safety applications.
• Technologies such as mobile VPN (MVPN) and QoS prioritization will ensure the security and priority of public safety communications over such networks.
• More than 36 countries will adopt public safety LTE by 2015 with 4.26 million subscriptions.
• Public safety subscriptions in the Asia Pacific region are likely to outnumber North America subscriptions with an estimated market share of 42.1 percent in 2015.
• The public safety LTE industry will account for a total revenue of $719 million by 2015, representing a CAGR of 198 percent ($241 million) from 2011.

The report said that by developing strong and meaningful interactions between the narrowband public safety land mobile radio (LMR) and LTE systems as well as collaborating between two-way radios and data devices, public safety organizations will maintain their mission-critical voice in times of crisis with all the advantages of cutting-edge multimedia services.