Date: 20/10/2010

IMS: Can cellular service replace Licensed Mobile Radio(LMR) network?

In a recently published report by IMS Research it is reported that very few of the 12 million licensed mobile radio (LMR) users in North America will substitute their LMR network for a cellular service; however, a lot of opportunity still exists for cellular MNOs to make money from this sector.

The research was based on a survey of 400 North American LMR license holders. The aim of the survey was to establish if cellular could replace LMR networks used by public safety and similar organisations. In particular it looked at whether push-to-talk over cellular services would entice these users to ditch their LMR networks.

Some other highligthts of the report:
The positive news for cellular MNOs is that more than half of survey respondents already used cellular in conjunction with LMR, mainly for 'outside agency' and mobile data communication. Mobile data offers a great opportunity here. Its use within this sector is on the increase and LMR network performance is many years behind cellular.

However, the results show that for the vast majority of users, cellular could not completely replace LMR. The full report presents exactly why and allows LMR solution providers to understand what defensible barriers they can use to stop migration. But in general, users believed cellular could not match performance for a whole range of features that they were not willing to trade off (e.g. direct mode). For this reason the research concludes that most LMR users will not ditch their LMR networks in favour of cellular. However, by carefully designing services to meet this user group's needs, cellular MNOs could still increase their revenues from this market sector. Please contact us for more information on "Push-to-talk Over Cellular - A Survey of North American LMR Users".