Mission critical

How GCC telecom

operators can
enable public safety
communications

Strategy& is part of the PwC network

Contacts About the authors

Beirut Dubai Jad Hajj is a partner with Strategy&

Middle East, part of the PwC network,
Ramzi Khoury Jad Hajj based in Dubai. He is a member of the
Principal, Strategy& Middle East Partner, Strategy& Middle East communications, media, and technology
+961-1-985-655 +971-4-390-0260 practice in the Middle East. He specializes
ramzi.khoury jad.hajj in helping telecom operators develop
@strategyand.ae.pwc.com @strategyand.ae.pwc.com winning strategies and build distinctive
capabilities. He has particular expertise in
Johnny Antonios corporate strategy, business-to-business,
Manager, Strategy& Middle East as well as digitization and innovation.
+961-1-985-655
johnny.antonios Ramzi Khoury is a principal with
@strategyand.ae.pwc.com Strategy& Middle East, based in Beirut.
A member of the communications,
media, and technology practice in the
Middle East, he works closely with
telecom operators on developing
their business-to-business digitization
strategies. His areas of expertise
are corporate planning, strategy
and business development, national
ICT plans, and corporate efficiency
programs, namely technology cost
optimization.

Johnny Antonios is a manager with

Strategy& Middle East, based in Beirut.
He is a member of the communications,
media, and technology practice in the
Middle East. He focuses on helping
telecom operators build their market-
facing capabilities and restructure their
operations. He has particular expertise in
go-to-market strategies and performance
turnaround programs.

Marc Nehme also contributed to this report.

2 Strategy&
Executive summary

In recent years, there have been public safety and security incidents
around the world, involving fatalities and damage to property and
infrastructure, which could have been mitigated by a faster first
response. Governments are often not fully equipped to respond to such
incidents. They often rely on commercial networks, which are prone to
crashing during such events. Or they use siloed legacy professional
mobile radio (PMR) networks that are outdated, are not interoperable,
and do not offer the necessary broadband capabilities for successful
operational interventions.

Governments and enterprises need broadband communication networks,

known as mission critical communications, for their public protection and
disaster relief (PPDR) forces and for their critical national infrastructures
(CNI). Such networks allow instant group communications with a high
degree of reliability, availability, and security. Broadband is important
because emergency and security systems increasingly provide real-time
information that involves transmitting significant amounts of data in a
reliable and uninterrupted manner.

Telecom operators in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are well

positioned to provide such networks and related services. They are
already at the center of Long-Term Evolution (LTE) commercial
deployments and have developed all the necessary capabilities to operate
this technology effectively. Telecom operators have three options to
pursue jointly or individually to become mission critical LTE providers:
an upgraded commercial network, a greenfield mission critical network,
and a hybrid brownfield network. Their range of service offerings to
monetize their mission critical LTE infrastructure investments is in three
main categories: communications, video, and telemetry (the automatic
recording and wireless transmission of data from remote sources). To
succeed, telecom operators need to act in three areas: network
deployment strategy, go-to-market approach, and operations capabilities.

Strategy& 3
The emergency problem

Despite all the technical and financial capabilities of governments and

enterprises around the world, there have been a number of security threats
and industrial incidents in recent years. Moreover, the responses to them
have been inadequate. Although implementing high-quality security and
safety procedures to prevent the occurrence of such events is crucial,
eliminating them entirely is impossible. When these incidents do occur, all
personnel mandated with the safety and security of people and assets must
be equipped with the right tools to conduct their activities with high
operational efficiency, particularly, fail-safe communications networks.
This is precisely the area in which governments and enterprises often fall
short. Telecom operators can step in to provide the necessary capabilities.

Two types of organizations, in particular, require communications

capabilities that enable effective interventions when incidents occur. Mission critical
These are public protection and disaster relief (PPDR) units and critical
national infrastructure (CNI) operators. networks differ
substantially
PPDR units: These comprise first responders that are responsible for the from commercial
health, safety, security, and welfare of citizens, such as police forces,
firefighters, and ambulance staff. First responders need mission critical networks.
communications in the following scenarios:

• Police officer group coordination and license plate recognition for

identifying suspect vehicles
• Firefighter group coordination, fire location monitoring, real-time
provision of detailed location information and direction, and
monitoring the physical well-being of firefighters
• Remote coordination by ambulances with hospitals for monitoring the
condition of patients
• Coordination with headquarters, compiling information (such
as a detailed location map) for a raid, and the monitoring of
vehicle location

4 Strategy&
CNI operators: These comprise personnel overseeing infrastructure that is
critical to the effective functioning of society, such as nuclear or electric
power plants, reservoirs and water supply, oil and gas rigs and pipelines,
mines and quarries, and key public transportation assets, such as airports
and train networks. Examples of when CNI operators need mission
critical communications include:

• Fleet monitoring for railway and metro operations

• Remote control and diagnosis of oil platforms or rigs, pipelines, power
plants, and mines
• Group coordination in airports including ground operations, fueling, fire
and rescue, cleaning and catering, customs and immigration

A number of recent incidents have shown how important it is for PPDR

units and CNI operators to intervene quickly and effectively, either to
thwart such incidents or to react to limit the damage. If they are unable to
do so, the consequences can be devastating. To be able to intervene
swiftly and coordinate their responses and activities with other units,
PPDR units and CNI operators need reliable and efficient mobile
communications that are labeled “mission critical.”

Mission critical networks differ substantially from commercial networks.

The latter, principally constructed for the mass market, are not designed
to handle peak traffic and support real-time group communications, nor
are they built with fully redundant architecture. They are therefore
exposed to congestion and availability issues.

Four recent examples demonstrate the importance of mission critical

communications.

• On March 22, 2016, three coordinated suicide bombings were carried

out in Brussels, Belgium, in a limited radius and within hours of each
other. So many people used their phones simultaneously to call family
and friends that the network of the incumbent operator Proximus was
paralyzed for eight hours. However, emergency services were able to
rely on the Belgian public safety network to communicate and
coordinate their activities successfully.
• On New Year’s Eve 2015, a fire broke out in the Address Downtown
hotel in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Owing to the swift
intervention of first responders who were using a unified
communications network to coordinate their activities, residents were
evacuated quickly with minimal casualties.

Strategy& 5
• On April 16, 2014, the MV Sewol ferry, transporting more than 470
passengers and crew, sank off the coast of South Korea. First
responders found it difficult to coordinate their activities because of
the multiple legacy communications systems operated by the different
intervention units. The final death toll reached 304. A month later, the
South Korean government decided to unify and upgrade the first
responders’ communications system, while also integrating high-speed
data into their capabilities.
• In September 2004, Hurricane Ivan hit the southern U.S. In addition
to massive property and infrastructure damage, power cuts affected
more than 1.8 million people in multiple states. However, Southern
Linc, a mission critical network operator, remained largely intact with
only 8 percent of its cell sites affected by the storm, enabling the
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and other public
safety bodies to coordinate their interventions effectively.

As the preceding examples suggest, PPDR units and CNI operators have a
critical need for voice communications and an increasing need for
broadband data usage. Moreover, it is clear that just one network should
be used by all organizations (PPDRs and CNIs alike) to ensure that
interventions are effectively coordinated.

6 Strategy&
Mission critical communications

PPDR units and CNI operators must always be able to conduct voice and
data communications even in the most extreme circumstances. They
must always have the ability, whenever required, to effectively
collaborate in dispatching intervention teams and managing their
operations. Such communication needs can be met only by a mission
critical network, which has six key features (see Exhibit 1):

Exhibit 1
Mission critical networks need six key features

Ensure continuous service availability

High availability

Provide stable and swift access

Reliability

Protect users from jamming, interception, and spoofing

Security

Support group calls and data messages

Point-to-multipoint

Enable real-time data services such as video streaming

and database querying
Broadband Note: PPDR = public
protection and disaster
relief, CNI = critical national
Allow interoperability among all PPDR units infrastructures.
and CNI operators
Unified Source: Strategy&

Strategy& 7
A number of legacy mission critical technologies exist that primarily
focus on voice services and have limited data capabilities. These are
known as professional mobile radio (PMR) systems (such as TETRA, P25,
iDEN, DMR, and TEDS). However, for supporting today’s complex
emergency environment, only mission critical Long-Term Evolution (LTE)
currently possesses the broadband capabilities that provide sophisticated
users with services such as video streaming, automated vehicle location,
and remote asset monitoring (see Exhibit 2).

Today, a number of mission critical LTE deployments can be seen in the GCC:

• One telecom operator is currently planning to deploy a single,

national mission critical LTE network to serve PPDRs and CNIs across
the country.
• A government-owned professional communication corporation has
been mandated by its government to deploy mission critical LTE for
public safety and situational awareness.
• The ministry of interior of one GCC country has already built its own
public safety LTE network.

Exhibit 2
Existing mission critical technologies

1989–1995 1991–1994 1992–1995 2001–2005 2000–2009 2016

P25 iDEN TETRA DMR TEDS LTE R13+

(APCO) (Motorola) (ETSI) (ETSI) (ETSI) (3GPP)

Individual and 4 4 4 4 4 4
group voice calls

Data bandwidth 1 1 1 1 2 4

Devices availability 4 2 4 4 1 3

Narrowband Wideband Broadband 0 Low 4 High

Source: Strategy&

8 Strategy&
The role of telecom operators in
the mission critical market

Telecom operators are ideally placed to deliver the mission critical

communications that governments and enterprises need.

First, telecom operators are well acquainted with LTE, which they
already rely on to enhance their commercial offerings and meet the
mass market demand for mobile high-speed data services.

Second, telecom operators currently serve governments and enterprises

through a variety of services, such as voice and data communications,
managed services and cloud, or enterprise solutions. Telecom operators
should build on these existing relationships and capabilities to include
the provision of mission critical services, with the client benefiting from
having all its communications needs covered by one operator.

Telecom operators have three options available to make them mission

critical LTE providers, which they can pursue individually or in
combination: an upgraded commercial network, a greenfield mission
critical network, and a hybrid brownfield network.

Upgraded commercial network

Simple software upgrades to existing LTE nodes permit basic mission critical
communications services (such as group calls, user and call prioritization,
and group management) at relatively low cost. Bringing these services
together by means of an upgrade fully exploits synergies within the telecom
operators’ technological capabilities. However, this option may not ensure
the necessary network hardening — which involves employing all the
security features to make sure the network is secure — that is required of
telecom operators to be robust mission critical providers. Nor may this option
meet all the terms of service-level agreements (SLAs) that governments and
enterprises will demand. Neither would it allow premium pricing for services
as there is no differentiation with commercial offerings.

Strategy& 9
Greenfield mission critical network
Deploying a fully dedicated mission critical LTE network requires large-
scale capital expenditure. It will be difficult to justify such an investment
given how much money telecom operators are already spending on
expanding the existing commercial LTE network. Although this option
will justify premium pricing, the resulting revenue will be insufficient to
make the investment worthwhile over a reasonable time frame.

Hybrid brownfield network

Telecom operators can deploy mission critical LTE nodes over existing
sites, minimizing civil work expenditures that typically account for the
majority of network deployment cost. They can also invest in deploying
additional backhaul links, backbone elements, and core equipment to
ensure high availability and guarantee redundancy. In this way,
premium pricing is justified, while the hardening of the network meets
the terms of the SLAs.

Telecom operators could rely on a combination of these options to

deploy their mission critical network while making the most of the
underlying investments. For instance, the upgraded commercial
network option can be adapted to rural areas. The greenfield mission
critical network option can be adapted to certain remote areas that
contain critical infrastructure (such as oil rigs). The brownfield network
option can be adapted to large cities where operators already exploit a
wide footprint of sites.

Given that mission critical network deployments require heavy

investment and mainly target governments and enterprises that manage
critical infrastructure, telecom operators can aim to strike public–
private partnerships (PPP) with governments, for the purpose of
obtaining their buy-in and securing the spectrum for LTE.

A number of mission critical LTE deployments are in use today, for

example, in the U.K., the U.S. and South Korea (see Exhibit 3).

10 Strategy&
Exhibit 3
Examples of mission critical LTE deployments worldwide

Deployment type Spectrum Public partner

1
Hybrid brownfield network (public Dedicated Spectrum First Responder Network (FirstNet)
AT&T safety network built over AT&T’s Authority in the U.S.
existing infrastructure)

2
Everything
Upgraded commercial network Shared Spectrum (with EE’s U.K. Home Office
Everywhere
(with increased network coverage) commercial network)
(EE)

3
KT A combination of greenfield Dedicated Spectrum South Korea’s Ministry of Public
Corporation, mission critical network and Safety and Security
SK Telecom hybrid brownfield network

Source: Strategy&

Strategy& 11
Monetizing mission critical

Telecom operators can provide a wide range of service offerings to

monetize their mission critical LTE infrastructure investments.
Telecom operators will need to customize these offerings to fit the
needs of each customer, given the widely varying goals of government
entities and enterprises. For instance, the police force will require
mission critical services for usages that are different from those of oil
and gas refineries. Also, some needs may be unique to a country, for
example, crowd monitoring during the Hajj season in Saudi Arabia.

The offerings can be grouped into three main categories:

communications, video, and telemetry (see Exhibit 4).

Exhibit 4
LTE mission critical offerings span three main categories

Category Service Description

Group voice Push-to-talk services, enabling one-to-many

1
communications and many-to-many voice communications

1-to-1 voice
2 Voice over LTE communications services
communications

Communications Data usage such as browsing, file transfer,

3 Data usage and database access for writing reports and
cataloguing on-scene events and evidence

Stationary Surveillance cameras such as CCTV to

4
cameras monitor key sites

Individual Mainly body-worn video cameras for stream-

5
cameras ing events encountered by PPDR personnel

Video
Vehicle Drones and in-car cameras used during crowd
6
cameras surveillance and environment monitoring

Individual Sensors monitoring individual safety

7
sensors and well being

Sensors collecting and monitoring status and

Network
8 functioning of network elements such as water
Telemetry sensors
or oil tank levels – includes fleet management
Source: Strategy&
12 Strategy&
Monetization will mainly come from communications and video
services. Telemetry services will generally have very low average
revenue per user (ARPU) when compared to the other two categories,
mainly due to the fact that sensors require only very limited
bandwidth. On the other hand, video services will have the highest
ARPU on a per-subscription basis, due to the high volumes of data that
require a significant portion of the network bandwidth (see Exhibit 5).

Exhibit 5
Communications and video services will have the highest average revenues per user (ARPU)

Estimated relative ARPU percentage increase per service

100%

Communications

4% 147%

Telemetry Video

(Index base)

Note: ARPU calculations for all services are indexed relative to communications services ARPU. Also, ARPU of certain services
can depend on local constraints and regulations in each country.

Source: Strategy&

Strategy& 13
Prospects for mission critical
LTE in the GCC

There is a clear need for mission critical services, and it is evident that
telecom operators can provide them. However, the business case is not
always apparent. Mission critical demands investment in
infrastructure and capabilities, both of which are already a substantial
cost to telecom operators. Then again, as the GCC mission critical
market is sizable and should double over the next 10 years, the
rewards could be significant (see Exhibit 6).

Exhibit 6
GCC market users and revenues

Forecast GCC mission critical LTE revenues by product category

(in million SIM cards) (in US$ billions)

CAGR 7.0% CAGR 6.6%

4.4 1.9
2%
9%
8%
3.3 1.4
2%
8%
72% 7%
2.2 1.0
1% 5% 6%
68%
83%
61%
85%
90%

30% 26%
38%

2018 2023 2028 2018 2023 2028

Telemetry Communications Video

Source: Strategy&

14 Strategy&
Demand will be mainly driven by communications and telemetry
services. PPDRs and CNIs will always need to equip their teams with
mission critical voice and PTT (postal, telegraph, and telephone)
communication services, as these represent the most essential means of
effectively coordinating interventions. In addition, since governments
and enterprises have had more need for individual and critical asset
monitoring in recent years, sensors will be required in high volumes.

Accordingly, telecom operators can prioritize their portfolios based on the

revenue impact and the ease of implementation and execution (see Exhibit 7).

Exhibit 7
Telecom operators need to prioritize their portfolios for the mission critical market

Short term Medium term Long term

High

Top priority

Group voice
communications 2
1-to-1 voice
communications
Revenue impact

Medium priority

6
Low priority
Vehicle
5 cameras 7
Individual
3 Individual
cameras
sensors
Data usage 4

Stationary
cameras 8

Network
sensors
Low

Easy Ease of implementation/execution Difficult

Telemetry Communications Video

Note: Numbers refer to order of priority. Data usage refers to internal browsing, file transfer, and database querying (i.e., it
excludes Internet access and video streaming).

Source: Strategy&

Strategy& 15
Success factors

To succeed in mission critical services, telecom operators should

consider specific actions in three areas: network deployment strategy,
go-to-market approach, and operations capabilities.

Network deployment strategy

Telecom operators should rely on a combination of the different
deployment models available, each adapted to a specific type of area, Telecom
thereby rolling out a mission critical network while simultaneously operators
optimizing the underlying investments. This implies the maximum
reutilization of all existing high-cost assets, such as towers, and parts of should rely on
backhaul and backbone that are redundant. In addition, telecom a combination
operators can aim to strike a PPP with the government, thereby of the different
enabling the necessary spectrum for mission critical LTE, and the buy-in
of PPDRs who constitute the majority of potential users. deployment
models
Go-to-market approach available.
Telecom operators should put communications services at the top of the
priority list, followed by video streaming services. Video streaming is
the service that consumes the most data, so it could be offered on a
limited basis at first, perhaps only to clients who need it as a mandatory
bundle with other services. This offering can later be expanded as
network capacity is increased to cater for demand.

16 Strategy&
Within their go-to-market strategy, telecom operators should develop a
premium pricing model. Mission critical offerings should be differentiated
from comparable yet commercial business-to-business offerings currently
provided by commercial networks with less stringent SLAs, and can lead
to high ARPUs. This should be accompanied by an effective
communication campaign aiming to shift the perception of government
entities and enterprises in relation to telecom operators. These customers
should ideally see operators less as commercial communications providers
and more as mission critical communications providers and national
security partners. Telecom operators will need to convince others about
their capability to provide both types of communications via networks
with different SLAs and levels of hardening.

Operations capabilities
Telecom operators should consider separating certain activities into two
distinct parts, one for commercial and one for mission critical services. For
instance, network operations teams will not have the same SLAs. Creating
dedicated teams for each type of network can therefore serve to optimize
technical interventions. The same applies for customer support, where a
dedicated team should be made available at all times of day for mission
critical customers. This is not necessarily needed for commercial
customers.

Strategy& 17
Conclusion

Telecom operators are well-positioned to succeed in the mission critical

market, and provide the vital telecommunications support that
governments and enterprises need at times of crisis. Although it seems
certain that the mission critical market will expand at a rapid rate, many
operators still have to make important strategic decisions about the
precise services they can offer, and the actions to be taken to exploit this
opportunity. With careful judgment and the right choices, the potential
gain for telecom operators could be significant.

18 Strategy&
Endnotes

1
The GCC countries are Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and
United Arab Emirates.
2
Long-Term Evolution (LTE) is a standard for high-speed wireless
communications for mobile phones and data terminals.
3
TETRA is Terrestrial Trunked Radio, P25 is Project 25 digital radio, iDEN is
Integrated Digital Enhanced Network, and DMR is Digital Mobile Radio.

Strategy& 19
Strategy& is a global team These are complex and charting your corporate We are a member of the
of practical strategists high-stakes undertakings strategy, transforming a PwC network of firms in 157
committed to helping you — often game-changing function or business unit, countries with more than
seize essential advantage. transformations. We bring or building critical 223,000 people committed
100 years of strategy capabilities, we’ll help you to delivering quality in
We do that by working consulting experience and create the value you’re assurance, tax, and advisory
alongside you to solve your the unrivaled industry and looking for with speed, services. Tell us what
toughest problems and functional capabilities of confidence, and impact. matters to you and find out
helping you capture your the PwC network to the more by visiting us at
greatest opportunities. task. Whether you’re strategyand.pwc.com/me.

www.strategyand.pwc.com/me
© 2017 PwC. All rights reserved. PwC refers to the PwC network and/or one or more of its member firms, each of which is a separate legal entity. Please see www.pwc.com/structure for further
details. Mentions of Strategy& refer to the global team of practical strategists that is integrated within the PwC network of firms. For more about Strategy&, see www.strategyand.pwc.com.
No reproduction is permitted in whole or part without written permission of PwC. Disclaimer: This content is for general purposes only, and should not be used as a substitute for consultation with
professional advisors.