Global public-safety LTE infrastructure spending will reach $2B in 2020, says report

The installed base of public-safety LTE base stations will reach nearly 155,000 globally by 2021 and will serve nearly 4 million public-safety LTE subscribers worldwide at that time, according to a new report from SNS Research.

The firm added that LTE eNodeB base station deployments will record a CAGR of nearly 60 percent between 2014 and 2020.

SNS also forecasts that global spending on public-safety LTE infrastructure eNodeBs, evolved packet core and backhaul will account for $2 billion annually by the end of 2020.

"With spectrum already allocated, public-safety agencies in the Middle East, Asia Pacific and the U.S have already begun to operate private LTE networks," SNS said.

However, in the United States progress on the nationwide public safety broadband network (NPSBN) being planned by the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) has been quite slow, with the entity still not having a business plan, network design or full-time CTO.

Urgent Communications recently noted that Harris County, Texas, has the nation's only operational public-safety LTE network, and that 11-site network was rolled out prior to the formation of FirstNet by Congress. Further, Harris County continues operating on FirstNet's 700 MHz spectrum under special temporary authority (STA) from the FCC, as the county does not yet have a long-term spectrum lease agreement with FirstNet.  

Meanwhile, millions of dollars' worth of equipment purchased for LTE networks in Mississippi and Charlotte, N.C., which failed to sign spectrum leases with FirstNet, will apparently go unused.

For more:
- see this SNS release and this release
- see this Urgent Communications article

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