P25 vs LTE - The Future of Public Safety Communications

With the press releases and general industry buzz, it sometimes sounds like Long Term Evolution (LTE) broadband communications is here and ready to replace Land Mobile Radio (LMR) for Public Safety. This is leaving many people confused about what action they should be taking with respect to current LMR technology. Some people have even asked if P25 has reached its end of life.

P25 and other LMR systems will remain a critical tool for Public Safety for many years to come. LTE is not ready to replace P25 for mission critical communications. LTE and future broadband technologies will continue to evolve over the next 10 to 20 years, to achieve the capabilities to replace P25 as well as building sufficient equipment to meet coverage requirements.  LTE still lacks real PTT, direct radio communications and vehicle repeaters to name a few things. How to deal with inbuilding coverage is also another area of concern.

One of the important benefits of the P25 standard is that system owners will be able to upgrade components over time, without having to do a full system replacement. This will allow P25 systems to change only the components that need to be changed, extending the service life of the radio system.

LTE systems will be deployed, starting with early adopters who are already implementing LTE for data, in limited sized areas. Over time LTE networks will evolve to to support voice capability and more LTE systems will be deployed, and the National Public Safety broadband network will be built. It will take many years for LTE to become widespread and trusted to provide mission critical voice communications.

P25 systems are here to stay and will continue to be a critical component of Public Safety communications for the next 10 to 20 years. Even when LTE is ready to provide mission critical voice communications, there will still be a need for LMR systems to cover areas where broadband is not cost effective to deploy.

It is still important to continue work on development of P25 standards and improved LMR interoperability. While Public Safety is primarily P25, there are key partners in Utilities, Hospitals, Public Works, Business and some Public Safety agencies, that operate on other systems. This includes implementing digital gateways to other networks such as DMR, NXDN and TETRA.

Based on the history of commercial carriers, technology evolution is a rapid and ongoing effort, so by the 20 year mark, LTE will be an old technology and something new will have replaced it. P25 may still be in use in some places when LTE is being replaced.

While P25 is here to stay for some time, support  must continue to build a National broadband network for Public Safety using the 700 MHz spectrum and LTE technology.