MuniWireless

A mobile wireless public safety system that promises to deliver a turnkey interoperabile solution was announced today by New Energy Technologies, a provider of in-field communications for government and municipalities. According to a press release, the NETwrkx Starter Kit uses BelAir Networks’ carrier grade wireless broadband technology ”to build a high-speed wireless network covering more than one square mile in less than an hour.”

Click here to read the press release.

Occasionally, we read stories that seem so rooted in the ‘where-have-they-been?’ department that they seem hardly worthy of comment. But when those stories appeared in such revered pages as The New York Times, they should be acknowledged. Last week, The Times caught up with trends in muni wireless following EarthLink’s pullback from the market, noting the diminishment of interest in digital divide programs and the shifting focus in the market. If you’ve been reading this blog, you already know about…

Philadelphia’s muni wireless network is in a holding pattern as it waits to see what EarthLink’s proposed sale of the network will mean to its future. Last week, in a interview with local radio station KYW, city Chief Information Officer Terry Phillis discussed the implications of the sale, calling it “by far the best alternative ” for the future of the network.

He acknowledged that finding an appropriate buyer will be challenging. Phillis said the buyer “would have to have a financial model that would…

Orange County, Va., intends to expand its current public safety network to provide 95 percent converage and has issued an RFP for the project. In addition to providing coverage for all base locations and fire stations, the project seeks to identify support structures suitable for antennas and to improve cell phone, as well as wireless broadband, coverage.

This is a 150 MHz VHF system. The RFP outlines the scope of the present system as well as the scope of the project. …

Technology writer Jeremy Hsu, writing for the IEEE Spectrum, reports that widespread individual and corporate adoption of wireless technologies has produced a Wi-Fi cloud over Salt Lake City could be a “make do” alternative to a municipal wireless network. The article goes on to postulate “Such unplanned wireless networks could provide the foundation for integrated citywide wireless coverage without huge investments in new infrastructure.”

Ad hoc networks can be–and are–powerfully attractive in areas where public access is the only goal of a…

The city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, will deploy a 4.9 Ghz wireless backhaul network in the first phase of a 97 square mile deployment of wireless video surveillance equipment. According to a press release announcing the deployment, the network will be able to scale to more than 100 camers as it is built out. Wi4Net, a solutions provider of integrated wireless video surveillance solutions, and Pivot3, Inc., whose high-definition mass storage system will be used to store the images, jointly announced today that the…