| Title |
The business case of a network that serves both public safety and commercial subscribers |
| ID_Doc |
68941 |
| Authors |
Hallahan, R; Peha, JM |
| Title |
The business case of a network that serves both public safety and commercial subscribers |
| Year |
2011 |
| Published |
Telecommunications Policy, 35, 3 |
| DOI |
10.1016/j.telpol.2010.12.006 |
| Abstract |
Deploying a single nationwide broadband wireless network to serve all public safety users would have great advantages over the existing fragmented public safety systems. A nationwide system could be created to serve both public safety and commercial subscribers, which would allow a provider to exploit important economies but force it to meet the more costly requirements of public safety. This paper analyzes the viability of a public-private partnership that serves public safety and commercial subscribers from a for-profit provider's perspective. A model is presented that estimates the net present value (NPV) of a wireless network by calculating costs based on the number of cell sites required and revenue based on the projected number of subscribers acquired. The model is applied to both a network that serves only commercial subscribers on 10 MHz of 700 MHz spectrum and a public-private partnership that serves commercial subscribers and public safety personnel on 20 MHz of 700 MHz spectrum. It is found that NPV is greater for the public-private partnership than for the commercial-only network for any population density, which shows that the value of 10 MHz of spectrum exceeds the cost of meeting public safety requirements. Furthermore, the paper demonstrates that NPV/cell increases with population density, so urban areas are profitable and rural areas are unprofitable. The paper demonstrates that a partnership covering 94% of the US population breaks even because the most urban 56% of population subsidizes coverage for the next 38%. If initial deployment is subsidized, a financially sustainable public-private partnership can serve much more than 94%. Additionally, it is shown that allowing urban municipalities to opt-out of the partnership can significantly increase the subsidies required. (c) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. |
| Author Keywords |
Public safety; First responder; Homeland security; Wireless; Public-private partnership; Net present value (NPV) |
| Index Keywords |
Index Keywords |
| Document Type |
Other |
| Open Access |
Open Access |
| Source |
Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED); Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) |
| EID |
WOS:000289397100004 |
| WoS Category |
Communication; Information Science & Library Science; Telecommunications |
| Research Area |
Communication; Information Science & Library Science; Telecommunications |
| PDF |
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