In sum – what you need to know:
$12bn by 2028 – global revenue from high-end push-to-talk (PTT) services – especially mission-critical (MC-PTT) on 4G/5G – will hit $12 billion by 2028, with an 11% CAGR.
Smarter MC-PTT – better priority-based PTT group comms, including video and data, are driving upgrades in public safety and industrial networks, and moves by major operators.
Industry 4.0 apps – adoption is booming across sectors – from emergency services on dedicated national networks to ports, rigs, grids, and cities on dedicated private networks.
Enterprise-wireless forecast merchants SNS Telecom & IT says service revenue from new high-end push-to-talk (PTT) subscriptions on public and private networks will reach $12 billion by the end of 2028. The firm has a new study that looks at the market for mission-critical (MC-PTT) and broadband PTT applications, and concludes they are a mainstay use-case, developing in their capabilities, for new 4G and 5G systems among industrial and public safety users.
The forecast claims compound annual growth (CAGR) of 11 percent between 2025 and 2028. Non-critical broadband PTT services will constitute the bulk of subscriptions, as now, but “much of this growth” will be driven by new MC-PTT offerings, progressively more advanced through the 3GPP standardisation process – informing 5G upgrades to purpose-built public-safety networks for emergency services and, often, rail networks, as well as new 5G installs for private enterprises.
MCPTT is an evolution of PTT over-cellular (PoC/PTToC) technology, replacing and upgrading mission-critical group comms functions in two-way ‘land mobile radio’ (LMR) systems, such as APCO P25 and TETRA – as commonly deployed in vehicles and ‘walkie-talkie’ devices in public safety organisations and critical enterprise operations. MCPTT offers faster call-setups, clearer audio in noisy environments, and priority and preemption mechanisms to override network access.
It also offers critical-grade video and data services, acronymised as MCVideo, and MCData in 3GPP parlance. 3GPP bundles this push-to combo of audio, video, and data as ‘mission-critical services’ (MCS) – and also, in nebulous marketing shorthand as, MC-anything/everything’ (MCX). “MCPTX and PTX (Push-to-Anything) are additional marketing terms that some suppliers use,” writes SNS Telecom & IT – for further clarity of this packed PTT alphabet soup.
SNS lists prominent safety networks in South Korea (Safe-Net), the US (FirstNet), the UK (ESN), France (RRF), Spain (SIRDEE), Italy (PIT), Finland (VIRVE 2.0), Türkiye (KETUM), as well as systems variously in Oman, Qatar, and Dubai. Elsewhere, it references projects in Sweden (Rakel G2), Hungary (EDR 2.0/3.0), Switzerland (MSK), Norway (Nytt Nødnett), Germany (BOS), the Netherlands (NOOVA), Japan (PS-LTE), Australia (PSMB), and Canada (PSBN).
It makes particular reference to major MC-PTT deployments by the national police and fire agencies in South Korea (KNPA and NFA; for 140,000 and 20,000 devices, respectively), as well. But the private 5G story, in wide-area and local-area (‘campus’) setups, is also driving orders. SNS Telecom & IT makes reference, as well, to MC-PTT deployments in Tampnet’s offshore private 4G/5G networks in the North Sea, and Hub One’s 4G/5G network in Paris airports.
But cities and enterprises, running dedicated/hybrid and private/public 4G/5G networks, are driving sales, too. It provides a random list of such references – “City of Buenos Aires, Icon Water, Turkish National Police in Adana, NS (Dutch Railways), Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, Rijkswaterstaat, WLE (Westphalian State Railway), SGP (Société du Grand Paris), Groupe ADP, DHL, Faroese first responders, AdventHealth, Georgia State Patrol, Dallas (Georgia) Police Department”.
It writes: “[MC-PTT systems] are increasingly being adopted by business and mission-critical end user organizations of all sizes across a host of industries.” The likes of AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Southern Linc, Telus, Bell Canada, SFR, KPN, Swisscom, Telia, Føroya Tele, Polkomtel, STC, Omantel, Telstra, and Telecom Argentina – again, all SNS references (in order) – have deployed or are launching MCPTT offerings to expand their enterprise (B2B) bases, it says.
