Commission recommends telcos for PSMB

Commercial carriers are the most cost-effective option for delivering a public safety mobile broadband capability to public safety agencies, according to a Productivity Commission report released today.

Mobile broadband technology represents a significant opportunity to save lives and property, improve officer safety and drive productivity gains in the delivery of public safety. It will allow frontline officers to access high-speed video, images, location tracking and much more.

However, mobile broadband use is unlikely to increase significantly until a public safety grade service — superior to services offered by commercial carriers today — is available.

The report evaluates a range of options for delivering a public safety mobile broadband capability to Australian public safety agencies, including use of a dedicated network, an existing commercial network and combinations (or hybrids) of the two.

The commission found that the commercial option would be significantly lower cost than a dedicated or hybrid option.

“A commercial option is substantially lower cost because considerable existing infrastructure could be used or shared, meaning significantly less new investment is required,” said Commissioner Jonathan Coppel.

The commission has assessed the risks of each option. While the nature and magnitude of risks varied across options, no option was clearly preferred on the basis of risk factors alone.

Since the benefits of each option are not expected to vary markedly, the commission considers that its cost evaluation provides the best guide to net community benefit. The cost differential estimated was in the order of $4 billion.

“Small-scale pilots would provide an opportunity for jurisdictions to gain confidence in a commercial approach, gauge the costs and benefits of the capability more precisely, and develop a business case for a wider scale rollout,” said Coppel.

“With mobile broadband technology, the potential to achieve interoperability within and across jurisdictions is within reach and would bring significant additional benefits,” said Coppel.

However, this will depend on jurisdictions agreeing to common interoperability protocols and making arrangements for sharing information and network capacity among agencies.

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