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LTE and public safety communication system

By Chike Onwuegbuchi
13 July 2018   |   3:05 am
There is little doubt that the mobile/wireless technology continues to change the way people communicate and conduct business on the African continent.It is now time to use the same technology to transform the public safety systems.

Telecommunication mast

There is little doubt that the mobile/wireless technology continues to change the way people communicate and conduct business on the African continent.It is now time to use the same technology to transform the public safety systems. Last year itself Africa witnessed many natural disasters, including floods in Nigeria, mudslides in Sierra Leone and fires in Kenya and South Africa.

Efficient critical communications systems ensure that the first responders can communicate with relevant organizations faster and more reliably.Long Term Evolution (LTE) is emerging as a technology of choice for the concerned authorities to transform their mission-critical systems.

While the earlier public safety networks relied on voice, a key advantage of LTE is that it can transmit large, high-quality images and videos.Live streaming of emergency situation or access to reliable location information can provide critical insights ensuring faster access to relief in the affected area. It can be the difference between life and death.

LTE also helps in bringing down complexity and cost of public safety networks. Public Safety usually involves coordination between multiple agencies, which might be using different systems and enables interoperability with legacy networks allowing various agencies to communicate with each other without a glitch. It is also able to manage prioritization of the users in a secure manner.

Further natural disasters usually lead to network outages, but solutions like Bring-Your-Own-Coverage and Network-In-Box deliver coverage anywhere.This allows first responders to set up their own broadband communication network and not let the network outage affect the rescue work. The plug-n-play and ease of deployment ensure that the communication is not affected by a crisis.

Network-in-box consumes much less batteries making it long lasting and sustainable in the event of emergency. A portable LTE public safety solution allows connectivity between people and things leading to better control of available resources during a crisis.LTE for Public Safety satisfies the demanding requirements of a public safety network, such as resilience, security, and quality of service. It is time Africa starts to leverage these advantages to save lives and provide reliable access to public safety services to the affected.

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