Rehbehn concluded that as public
safety is “a conservative segment
because lives are at stake, this will be
a slow transition. So I think the folks
who are making traditional LMR
systems will probably be in pretty
good shape for a while.”
Neil Horden emphasised the need
to think in system lifecycles, adding
that the typical lifecycle is 12-20
years, which is also the time it would
take to achieve 50 per cent uptake
of LTE “even if you said ‘throw the
switch today’”. He noted that the
industry as whole has only recently hit
the point where digital technologies’
install base exceeds that of analogue.
He also said in the US, public safety
communications and LMR grew up
in a symbiotic relationship – “so it is
more than just a technology and a user
group, their operation, their procedures
and so on are built around it LMR
and that puts a pretty high hurdle to
MCPTT, it’s got to be able to not
just replace what you imagine PTT
on LMR does well, but even a lot of
the things that it doesn’t do well that
people are used to. We saw that first
with direct mode.”
He concluded by predicting
that as the US population is “very
lumpy” in terms of its geographical
distribution; this “makes covering
wide areas with the density you need
a difficult proposition”. He predicted
that the suburban doughnuts around
urban areas will be first to move
to MCPTT as they have “enough
density to justify the coverage, enough
economic activity to justify the cost
and small enough agencies to turnover
equipment quickly”.
Rehbehn drew attention to one
huge advantage that FirstNet possesses
– “Its model takes the CAPEX
commitment away from the public
safety agency” – and he noted its
appeal to some impoverished rural
areas where AT&T will provide “good
enough coverage”.
Horden responded by observing
that an OPEX-based model is out of
sync with the classic funding model
vehicle location (AVL), “unlike other
previously available technologies in
North America” and due to the way
that “commercial systems are never
designed – that’s a matter of business
model, it’s not technology – to be
available 99.999 per cent of the time”.
He added that the same companies
had also performed studies on
CAPEX versus OPEX with respect to
critical communications equipment
procurement, and determined “that
with commercial services there is
no CAPEX, but the OPEX is much
bigger, so in 10 years’ time they
would pay much more for using
a commercial service rather than
buying their own LMR system”.
Martin added that PowerTrunk
offers integrated broadband/TETRA
solutions which have a common single
network management system for both
technologies, as certain user-required
applications may need broadband.
“Clearly LTE has real value, but in
our view it’s not a technology that
will replace LMR, at least not in the
foreseeable future.”
Gray noted that the consensus
around the table was “that LMR has a
lot of life left in it but that some level
of coexistence and parallel running is
the way to go for quite some time”.
Horden noted that as the majority
of public safety users switched to
commercial 3G/4G services 15 years
ago for data, this “parallel path started
some point in the past”.
Interoperability – more than
just the air interface
The conversation then moved on
to the importance of ensuring that
mission-critical broadband equipment
is standards-compliant. Harald Ludwig
said “only standards-based solutions
give you interoperability” and noted
for public safety communications,
which like agencies’ communication
procedures has evolved symbiotically
with LMR – it being CAPEX-based
and taking the form of a grant or “a
state allocation from the state budget at
a much higher level”.
John Monto said he believes the
transition to MCPTT will take place
once technology, funding and the
lifecycle aspect all align. Peter Clemons
added there is also the need to consider
the “new generation of younger people
with different mindsets and ways of
operating… so even though I don’t
necessarily disagree with what we’ve
said, that LMR is going to be around
for a long time, there will be pressures
from the younger generations”.
In response to Rehbehn’s point
that this is enabled by a hybrid
environment, Clemons said: “But then
it comes down to narrowing it down
to as few hybrid options as possible.
Because as soon as every country
has its own hybrid option, then
that nullifies a lot of the whole
global standardisation process that
we’ve pushed.”
PowerTrunk’s Jose Martin said
the feedback he had received from
his customers and potential ones
is that they “are not interested in
services provided by commercial
operators”, due to the need for their
supplier to meet five nines (99.999
per cent) availability: “There is no
commercial service capable of doing
that.” He added that customers such
as New Jersey (Transit) or the New
York Metropolitan Transportation
Authority, among others (which have
public safety-like requirements) had
been investigating the market for
years and concluded that TETRA was
the right technology for them as its
data capabilities support automatic
PowerTrunk’s
CEO, Jose Martin
(left of centre),
said that his
customers are
not interested
in services from
commercial
operators
As soon as every country
has its own hybrid
option, then that nullifies
a lot of the whole global
standardisation process
that we’ve pushed
April 2019 @CritCommsToday 21