Public safety LTE will be the highest growth market for first responder communications.

A technology-driven concept, a safe city is one that enables inter-agency collaboration, effective communication, and better use of intelligence. The four pillars of a Safe City include integrated communications and technology, multi-agency collaboration, shared command & control, and intelligence and analytical capability. A safe city will offer a developed environment, assurance of safety for citizens and a stable economy leading to more opportunities for growth via foreign and domestic investments.

Shikhar Aggarwal, Principal Consultant, Security Practice, Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific said, "Governments around the world are investing in the development of safe cities, with countries in the Middle East and Asia poised to experience rapid growth through heavy investment in the areas of infrastructure, new build, and significant upgrade of communication networks."

This will in turn drive key first responder community segments, including city governance departments to develop tangible results such as a predictive, "smarter" approach to crime and disaster, better allocation of resources, performance indicators, improved response times, and better situational awareness.

Impact on First Responder Community

"The Global First Responders C3i and emergency response market will grow at a CAGR 14.7% from 2012 - 2019. The Asia Pacific market was worth USD10.08 billion in 2012 and is expected to grow to USD23.69 billion in 2019," said Subhranshu Sekhar Das, Business Unit Leader, Security Practice, Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific.

Frost & Sullivan's three big predictions in the area of first responder community are:

1. Public safety LTE will be the highest growth market for first responder communications.
2. Software-defined radios and cognitive radios will emerge as the next generation technologies for public safety communications competing with land mobile radio, although LMR will probably remain in use for a long time.
3. Public safety software solutions, especially CAD and RMS will have significant growth. The total public safety software market will reach USD17.83 billion in revenue by 2019.

Impact on Biometric Technology

The smart cities and smart infrastructure trend is gaining more traction. The merging of intelligent technology and infrastructure is promising for biometrics and border control. This trend also underlines the creation of intelligent transportation hubs that provide excellent connectivity with other cities.

More information will be accessible digitally, which implies that new technology will be implemented in cities and in infrastructures. This indicates that more biometric solutions can be used, for instance, in surveillance or eGovernment systems.

According to Richard Wong, Director, Public Sector Practice, Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific, infrastructure investments over the next decades are set to increase significantly.

He says, "Although Western markets (North America and Europe) are still likely to generate the highest revenue, there is vast market potential in Africa, the Middle East and the APAC region. The most important infrastructural investments for the border control and biometrics market will probably be road/rail and air/seaports with an estimated USD1,590 billion set to be invested in airports and seaports from 2005 to 2030."

With the value of investments being elevated, it can be seen how crucial it is to be present on the market. Road and rail investments are expected to have a greater emphasis but not influence the biometric and border control market as heavily as airports and seaports due to a lower deployment of border control gates.

In 2012, the global biometrics market mainly comprised of four main segments by percentage of sales breakdown, namely – Military (4.7%), Law Enforcement (8.9%), e-Government (22.2%) and Border Control (64.2%).

The APAC region needs to be an area of focus for all biometrics segments as it earned 37.8% of the market revenue in 2012 and is predicted to increase to 45.0% by 2021.

According to Frost & Sullivan, the three key predictions in the area of biometric technology are:

1. The exceptional growth in the biometric industry will be influenced by spin-offs into commercial space. To achieve a strong position in the market, it will be crucial for a company to be active in several areas.
2. Biometrics will become a service at airports for first class travelers. This will afford the passenger greater flexibility and convenience as parking, border control and baggage check-in will be faster and more personalized.
3. The future of border control will verify the traveler against a national database using AFIS technology, which has already been deployed in some countries. At present, the current e-Gate solution only verifies the traveler against his document.
4. Every country is on a different life cycle with respect to developing safe city frameworks, including biometric technology. At present, the concept of safe cities is being studied in many ASEAN countries with Singapore developing and testing solutions to practice safety and security for the country.