Public Safety LTE Networks and Devices – Market Status July 2018

To respond adequately to disaster situations and to ensure public safety and security, first responders need the latest communications technologies. The 3GPP community introduced a set of solutions suitable for use in a public safety context with the establishment in 2016 of standards for mission critical communications over LTE networks. Enhancements and additions have been made in subsequent 3GPP standards releases to provide emergency and blue light services with a communication solution designed to match their exacting requirements and that can stand as a robust competitor to legacy and ageing Land Mobile Radio systems. As the 3GPP community introduced standards, device and infrastructure manufacturers released equipment for use in public safety LTE (PS-LTE) networks. Service and network providers began trialling and deploying PS-LTE infrastructure.

This report looks at the current state of the PS-LTE ecosystem. This includes networks that are being trialled, planned, or deployed or are already launched and devices, spectrum allocation patterns, as well as future developments.

Key data points:

• 10 countries are deploying or have launched PS-LTE networks
• 9 countries plan or are trialling PS-LTE networks
• 78 devices designed for PS-LTE networks
• 42 smartphones or handhelds support PS-LTE functionality
• 35 unique PS-LTE device suppliers

©2018 GSA

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