India
10
Growth factor
India’s critical communications market is relying on a mixture of
standards and device types as it moves from analogue to digital and
the country pursues its smart cities vision. Barry Mansfi eld takes a
closer look at the evolving technologies
www.criticalcomms.com January 2020
The critical
communications market
is expected to grow
from $13.9bn in 2019
to $19.8bn by 2024. In
India, the dominant driving factors
behind this projected market growth
are the availability of more advanced
features, with higher demand from
public safety agencies, transport
(especially Indian airports), the
energy sector and utilities, as well
as increasing pressure to upgrade
conventional analogue networks
to digital.
However, stretched procurement
budgets and interoperability issues
are likely to stunt the growth of the
critical communications market in
the short and mid-term.
India is growing rapidly in terms
of technology and urbanisation;
installing critical communications
networks is vital to serve a population
of 1.3 billion and the four new
megacities expected by 2030.
Moreover, to combat the evergrowing
incidents of terrorism and
natural disasters, Indian offi cials are
planning to ramp up their spending
on the adoption of advanced
security systems.
Meanwhile, public agencies are
drawn to video and real-time data
transmission capabilities and the
appeal of high coverage levels,
Meanwhile, India’s shift to 5G
looks set to be frustrated by poor
spectrum management. As of late
2019, close to half of the spectrum
auctions held in India had ended
in failure, with the government
unable to identify any takers for the
spectrum on off er.
While the 3G auction in 2010
proved a bonanza for the government,
there were no bids in 2016 for the
700MHz spectrum. Bidders face
multiple charges for the right to
use the same spectrum; analysts
reckon that current levies
(calculated as a portion of operator
revenue) are discouraging effi cient use
of spectrum.
India’s development of new Public
Protection and Disaster Relief
(PPDR) and similar infrastructure
for the coming decades will
require signifi cant radio spectrum
resources, suitable funding models,
infrastructure sharing of towers and
sites, rights of way and decisions on
a governance model as PPDR users
As of late 2019, close
to half of the spectrum
auctions held in India had
ended in failure… unable
to identify any takers
maximum availability, fault-tolerance,
and low redundancies.
However, the evolution of critical
communications systems in India
follows a diff erent trajectory from
that seen in Europe and North
America. Public safety agencies
typically rely on voice specialised
systems based on private narrowband
radio such as Project 25 or TETRA.
By contrast, LTE for critical
communications has suff ered limited
data transport capabilities, low
spectral effi ciency, high costs and a
slow evolution owing to the lack of
economies of scale. Th is is one of
the main stumbling blocks to India’s
adoption of LTE.
LMR here to stay
Analyst group IndustryARC suggests
that the Asia-Pacifi c region is the
fastest-growing industrial radio
market, likely to expand at around
11% annually up to 2023. Despite
the appeal of LTE and the tantalising
prospect of 5G for India, LMR is
likely to stay relevant to public safety
agencies for a long time.
Cost is one of the main factors; after
all, many LMR operators have only
just completed the shift from analogue
systems to digital (P25, TETRA and
DMR). Th e most likely scenario
involves augmentation of current
LMR voice systems with LTE for data.
The Indian critical
comms market
is expected to
grow in value to
$19.8bn by 2024
/www.criticalcomms.com