Mobile spend set to match fixed-line investment
Police spending on mobile almost matches the total paid for networks and fixed-line communications, according to a survey by Police Market Report.
Police spending on mobile almost matches the total paid for networks and fixed-line communications, according to a survey by Police Market Report.
The amount paid to exclusively mobile companies fell just 14 per cent short of the £22.4 million paid to the three largest broadband, voice and network operators over the six-month survey period.
A data model constructed by Police Market Report, the police ICT subscriber service, examined spending in 28 forces in England and Wales. The model, which excludes the Metropolitan Police Service, identified a total mobile vendor spend of £19.193 million, more than 86 per cent of which was split between Airwave and Vodafone, followed by Telefonica and EE.
Significant investment of £1 million-plus is indicated by some force figures, while others reveal a mix-and-match approach to vendor selection.
The results come as the Home Office pushes ahead with the next stage of its Emergency Services Network procurement (see PP434).
The Police Market Report model will provide a benchmark for existing Airwave costs as vendors work out offerings that include voice and 4G functionality.
It also indicates total spending on mobile is likely to overtake fixed-line as a proportion of expenditure.
The latest raft of business change plans all point to greater mobile working as a way to maximise use of resources. Estates rationalisation, departmental mergers and frameworks will see further pressure on broadband and fixed-line costs, says Police Market Report.
The gap between fixed and mobile may already be closer because the numbers do not take into account the mobile offering from BT.
However, the picture is not clear cut. Future customer service delivery plans will place heavy demands on networks and bandwidth. Chief officers want contact management costs dragged down by more web-based crime and incident reporting.
John Rowland, Police Market Report editor, said traditional voice calls for service were costly, especially since most do not involve emergencies.
Chief officers want to save money by diverting more traffic online and its here there will be growth opportunities, he added.
The Police Market Report model examined 168 sets of data from 28 forces. A total of 21 forces supplied spend data for Airwave, 28 for BT, 20 for Vodafone, 17 for EE, 14 for Telefonica, eight for KCOM and 13 for Virgin Media.
For more information contact reports@policemarketreport.co.uk or visit www.policemarketreport.co.uk
