Report: Global public safety LTE spending to reach $850M in 2016

Worldwide spending on public safety LTE deployments is expected to expand 250 percent between 2011 and 2016, growing to $850 million in 2016 from $240 million in 2011, according to a report from Mind Commerce.

Public safety agencies, vendors and service providers are investing heavily in public safety LTE, with more than 11 commercial contract awards having been made as of March 2012 and several prominent international trials being conducted, said the firm, which noted LTE is considered the de facto standard for public safety broadband communications.

"By 2016, Mind Commerce expects the global public safety LTE market to annually account for over $ 6 billion in revenue. This presents a lucrative opportunity not only for vendors and system integrators, but also for operators, as a vast percentage of the revenue will be generated by operating the network," said the firm.

Mind Commerce predicts network operator service revenues will account for as much as 80 percent of all revenue, followed by infrastructure sales, integration services and device shipments. "Hence we expect a number of infrastructure manufacturers to follow the Build, Own and Operate (BOO) network deployment model," said the research firm.

Individual public safety LTE subscriptions will reach nearly 120,000 across the United States by the end of this year, according to Mind Commerce, which projects there will be 2 million public safety LTE subscriptions worldwide in 2016.  

"While first responders will be keen to adopt LTE to increase communications and situational awareness for public safety operations, it is important to note that this is by no means a replacement for traditional LMR (Land Mobile Radio) systems such as APCO 25 and TETRA, which will stay in place for years to come. Public safety LTE subscriptions will barely represent 5 percent of the total LMR user population even in 2016," Mind Commerce added. 

For more:
- see this Mind Commerce release

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