Analysts see coming boom in municipal interoperability gear
Coming on the heels of a DHS report showing two-thirds of states and municipalities are underprepared, Datamonitor survey finds an expected spending increase of 40 percent over five years
A recent DHS report showed marked improvement in emergency communications and interoperability, but at least two-thirds of states and municipalities still have far to go. No surprise, then, that a new report by market research firm Datamonitor finds that agencies below the federal level will boost their communications investments by 40 percent over the next five years. According to Datamonitor, spending will increase from $3.2 billion in 2006 to $4.4 billion in 2011, although these efforts may run into trouble. “We cannot overlook the fact that collaboration and collective decision-making is difficult in an environment where individual agencies or jurisdictions typically purchase equipment independently,” said Datamonitor’s Kate McCurdy. “You have a situation where state and local governments recognize the need to improve interoperability but lack the means to do so.”
-read more in Brian Robinson’s FCW report
