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​Samsung shows off public safety system based on PS-LTE

Samsung has built a wireless network environment in hope to win a government project aimed to boost the public safety communication system in Korea.
Written by Cho Mu-Hyun, Contributing Writer

Samsung has demonstrated its public safety communications goods based on Public Safety-LTE (PS-LTE) standards to government clients.

The South Korean tech giant built a wireless network environment at its headquarters in Suwon for testing. The company simulated the system in front of government officials. The company said that it was the first demonstration based on PS-LTE standards.

PS-LTE was certified by 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), an international communications standard setter, in March. Samsung actively participated during the standard setting process, it said.

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Samsung CSC
(Image: Samsung)

The country is currently accelerating plans to build a public safety communication system that unifies the wireless networks used by police, firefighters, soldiers, railroad employees, regional governments, and other public enterprises. The project is estimated to be worth over $2 billion, with companies such as Huawei, Nokia, and Ericsson expressing interest for the bid.

Samsung showed off its Push To Talk (PTT) technology that allows simultaneous calls to multiple people; its evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast service (eMBMS) that can send high definition videos to smartphones in crowded areas; and its Device to Device (D2D) technology that allows connections between handsets, even when radio stations are defunct.

The company said such technologies will greatly help rescuers and those in distress, during and after disasters such as earthquakes.

Samsung also showed off custom-made smartphones specifically designed to be used in public safety networks that has walkie-talkie capabilities, and are IP67-certified water- and dust-proof.

The Budget for building the public national network has yet to be passed by the National Assembly. The move is likely to be part of the bigger enterprise push by Samsung recently. The South Korean tech giant has been attempting to expand its client base in enterprise through new solutions such as Knox, among others.

Becoming the main supplier of handsets and system for its home country's public safety network will likely boost the validation for its enterprise goods, allowing it to eventually clinch more clients abroad. The US and UK are reportedly interested in building their own public safety networks.

A Samsung spokesman said the company had "strong interest" in winning orders for the government project. He added that it was too early to say whether they would start exporting the goods to enterprise market outside of South Korea.

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