Migration to Digital Boosts South African PMR Market
South Africa is seen as a challenging and risky, yet growing market. The lack of technical skills, limited access to finance and questionable regulation can be seen as offering opportunity for some firms.
The South African PMR market can be segmented into government users, professional private users, public operator and dealer-reseller sectors. Conventional analog, simulcast and MPT 1327 trunked PMR technologies remain in significant use, as does TETRA. To a lesser extent, Digital Mobile Radio (DMR) and digital Private Mobile Radio (dPMR) technologies have been deployed, with one user indicating a potential GSM-R deployment.
Significant growth is expected as a result of the migration to frequency efficient digital technologies. In the professional systems and solutions deployment space, current and emerging digital technologies facilitate integration of fixed wireless and mobile radio to the IP cloud where secure mobile data is the key driver, in addition to better quality secure voice communications. Opportunities for software application developers focusing on dispatch and security will create a demand for different skill sets to be employed by PMR integrator vendors.
While the number of analog users exceeds the number of digital users, there is an increasing trend toward digital technologies across all market sectors. The benefits of digital technologies are well marketed by vendors, and technologies that facilitate a well-priced soft migration are garnering the most interest.
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Source: Radioresource International
