ABI Research predicts that public safety LTE will hit the mainstream markets after 2020, as trials and deployments gain momentum across the world. Hardware revenue is expected to grow by 30% annually, reaching $540 million in 2025. The U.S., UK and South Korea will host the world’s first three operational public safety LTE networks by the end of 2017 or early 2018. It is predicted that many countries will likely follow suit, either through a dedicated public safety LTE network or a hosted or shared infrastructure model.

“Coexistence with legacy public safety protocols is still crucial, as legacy protocols, such as TETRA and P25, are still being deployed by agencies across the world,” said Lian Jye Su, senior analyst at ABI Research. “Public safety LTE guarantees features that generate augmented user experience for public safety agencies through video streaming, file sharing, and real-time analytics, without compromising security. It is imperative that authorities learn from countries like Australia and Finland, start early, and prepare for the switch.”

Public safety networks can benefit from various technological advancements in LTE. The advancements introduce new applications to public safety LTE like environmental sensors through LTE-M or NB-IoT, real-time surveillance through high-data throughput, and small unmanned aviation systems through edge computing. Existing public safety solutions, such as computer-aided dispatch (CAD) and automatic number plate recognition (ANPR), that currently operate in proprietary hardware and software can be virtualized, secured, and integrated with an overlay of cross-functional data storage, analytics, and intelligence.

For more information, visit www.abiresearch.com.