Tetra market focus
The market for tetra equipment has grown steadily over the past decade, as new sectors and geographical areas have begun to emerge. MOBILE EUROPE examines ITS development.
TETRA Market Status: Current Status
TETRA market figures show healthy year-on-year growth for the last 10 years (currently 37% to the equivalent point as last year).
The fastest growing regions are Latin America and Asia Pacific, and the fastest growing sectors are Commerce & Industry and Utilities. There is also an increase in the number of countries where TETRA contracts have been won, from 70 in 2004 to 88 in 2006. This represents a 25% increase, with 53 of these contracts being outside Europe.
TETRA Geographic Markets
Europe as a whole currently represents 75% of TETRA business and is likely to dominate TETRA sales for the next few years. The rate of growth has, however, slowed down after the lofty peak in 2002-2003 and TETRA is entering the typical maturity phase of the product lifecycle. It is reasonable to expect that awarding the outstanding nationwide PSS contracts in Europe to TETRA, especially the BOSNet contract in Germany, will inject an additional boost to sales. This is likely to reverse the decline in the rate of growth and provide a boost to TETRA sales in Europe for the next few years. In the medium term, after all major PSS and Transportation contracts for digital systems have been let, the sales in Europe will largely come from replacements and upgrades, for which an early availability of TETRA Release 2 is essential.
For these reasons the growth of TETRA business will increasingly depend on increased penetration into the markets outside Europe. In a nearer horizon, the highest potential lies in the Asia Pacific region, where China and Korea represent short to medium term potential, and India medium to long term potential. There is also large business potential for TETRA technology in Latin America, especially Brazil, Mexico and Argentina, though the availability of finances is likely to continue to be the limiting factor.
In the longer term, the growth of TETRA business must come from entering new markets. North America (US and Canada) is a significant opportunity and, to a lesser extent, Australia and New Zealand. With an increasing interest in TDMA technologies being shown in North America there is a potential opportunity for vendors to develop this market and the Association may be called upon to support such activities.
TETRA Market Sectors
Almost 50% of TETRA business currently comes from Public Safety and Security (PSS) market sector. Since this is the traditional mainstay of PMR business, all the indications are that this trend will continue, if not get bigger, as the demand for mobile communication solutions for PPDR grows ever stronger. Transportation is the next biggest sector representing a further 25% of all contracts. It comprises several sub-sectors: private transport (taxis), mass urban transport (bus and metro), airports and railways.
Utilities are emerging as the third biggest sector, which follows the traditional PMR business pattern. Following almost two decades of ‘flirting’ with PAMR and even Cellular, the Utilities are finally accepting that their business needs are akin to other professional users, like the Emergency Services and Transportation. This is especially so at the times when they have to deal with disasters – either natural or man-made. It is apparent, in these situations, that their mobile communication needs could only be fully met by the professional mobile radio systems, where TETRA is increasingly emerging as a clear winner.
Market Sector Update
The recent decision of the TETRA Association Board to set up a special sub-group to target TETRA sales to the Railway industry is likely to provide additional business opportunities for TETRA outside Europe in the short to medium term. In order to monitor the effectiveness of that activity, it is proposed for the future, to separate this segment away from transportation into its own category of Railways. Depending on the outcome of this activity, there may be a merit, in the future, to consider similar focusing of the Association’s resources on other sectors and sub-sectors, which could benefit from it, e.g. Military, Ports and Airports, etc. The introduction of Release 2 TETRA is likely to further develop the data-only sectors and applications, e.g. telemetry, telematics, etc., or even open up some new sectors, yet unidentified, thus creating an additional potential for TETRA business.
