Comments on: Cisco turns the municipal wireless market upside down http://www.muniwireless.com/2007/10/16/cisco-turns-the-municipal-wireless-market-upside-down/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=cisco-turns-the-municipal-wireless-market-upside-down Citywide WiFi, smart grid, enterprise wireless, public safety, mobile apps Sun, 12 Feb 2012 01:38:22 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Larry Karisny http://www.muniwireless.com/2007/10/16/cisco-turns-the-municipal-wireless-market-upside-down/#comment-26037 Larry Karisny Wed, 17 Oct 2007 12:09:03 +0000 http://muniwireless.sandboxdev.com/?p=6534#comment-26037 Cisco’s strategy is a “real world” look at who is still waiting for municipal mesh networks. My recent meetings have been with city CIOs, City Managers, Chief of Police and Fire Chiefs. I give them a presentation starting with the audio of the communication break down on 9/11/2001 and from there give them video fact statements (you can see them on anewnetwork.com) of how every year after wireless hybrid mesh networks were the only surviving networks in catastrophes. It is shameful how long our public safety personnel have been waiting for survivable and interoperable wireless municipal networks. It is worse when we are given reminders like Hurricane Katrina and most recently the Minneapolis bridge collapse that there are immediate solutions to these problems. In 2002, I was the keynote speaker at the University of Tampa in a conference for first responders. I showed them the solutions (hybrid mesh to mobile mesh) and they directed me back to the politicians for approval. We all know what a waste of time that was. I am glad we are now where the rubber meets the road. No more political hype. In a recent meeting with regional City Managers, Chief of Police and Fire Chiefs, I stated that I was sick and tired of seeing three radios devises on the belts of public safety officials. I was latter corrected by a Fire Chief saying they now have four radio devises. He then explained how he juggles all four devises in an emergency response. All these radios cost money and are expensive band aids in trying to get a legacy emergency communication network to interoperate. That money could be better spent on a real known interoperable and survivable wireless communication solutions. It is time to give these people actually what they need. It is time for a new network. Cisco’s strategy is a “real world” look at who is still waiting for municipal mesh networks. My recent meetings have been with city CIOs, City Managers, Chief of Police and Fire Chiefs. I give them a presentation starting with the audio of the communication break down on 9/11/2001 and from there give them video fact statements (you can see them on anewnetwork.com) of how every year after wireless hybrid mesh networks were the only surviving networks in catastrophes.

It is shameful how long our public safety personnel have been waiting for survivable and interoperable wireless municipal networks. It is worse when we are given reminders like Hurricane Katrina and most recently the Minneapolis bridge collapse that there are immediate solutions to these problems. In 2002, I was the keynote speaker at the University of Tampa in a conference for first responders. I showed them the solutions (hybrid mesh to mobile mesh) and they directed me back to the politicians for approval. We all know what a waste of time that was.

I am glad we are now where the rubber meets the road. No more political hype. In a recent meeting with regional City Managers, Chief of Police and Fire Chiefs, I stated that I was sick and tired of seeing three radios devises on the belts of public safety officials. I was latter corrected by a Fire Chief saying they now have four radio devises. He then explained how he juggles all four devises in an emergency response.

All these radios cost money and are expensive band aids in trying to get a legacy emergency communication network to interoperate. That money could be better spent on a real known interoperable and survivable wireless communication solutions. It is time to give these people actually what they need. It is time for a new network.

]]> By: Abed Farhan http://www.muniwireless.com/2007/10/16/cisco-turns-the-municipal-wireless-market-upside-down/#comment-25995 Abed Farhan Tue, 16 Oct 2007 20:28:14 +0000 http://muniwireless.sandboxdev.com/?p=6534#comment-25995 The change of strategy on how to execute a successful Muni WiFi is the key to the FIRST win. Maybe the initial disappointment of the last models was exactly what was needed to secure a promising future for Muni WiFi. We needed to slow the pace down, build favorable ROI, align with appropriate advocates in local /state governments and build one useful rollout out that could be a model moving forward. Sound tech companies with plenty of resources will succeed in leveraging this tremendous opportunity. The change of strategy on how to execute a successful Muni WiFi is the key to the FIRST win. Maybe the initial disappointment of the last models was exactly what was needed to secure a promising future for Muni WiFi. We needed to slow the pace down, build favorable ROI, align with appropriate advocates in local /state governments and build one useful rollout out that could be a model moving forward. Sound tech companies with plenty of resources will succeed in leveraging this tremendous opportunity.

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