Public Safety Mobile Broadband: A Techno-Economic Perspective

Wireless communications are critical to supporting the operational capabilities of public protection and disaster relief (PPDR) organizations. The private/professional mobile radio (PMR) technologies currently used for PPDR communications offer a rich set of voice-centric services [e.g., push-to-talk (PTT) group calls] but have very limited data transmission capabilities and are unable to cope with increasing demands in the PPDR community for mobile data-centric applications. Introducing PPDR mobile broadband communications faces a number of technical and economic/business challenges. It is believed that the current paradigm for PPDR communications provisioning based on dedicated technologies, dedicated networks, and dedicated spectrum no longer constitutes the main approach for introducing PPDR mobile broadband, and hence new paradigms and innovative solutions are needed. Thus, this article first identifies and discusses the main techno-economic drivers across the technology, network, and spectrum dimensions that are anticipated to lay the foundations for future PPDR communications to be efficient and cost-effective. Then, relevant estimations and illustrative figures are provided to add perspective and valuable insight into the economic roots of the envisioned future PPDR mobile broadband communications.