Hot Topics Subscribe to Newsletter Tell a Friend Print this Page 06/19/2008 Wireless-Government Market Opportunities In the face of growing fiscal pressures, state and local governments are seeking to lower government operational costs, increase productivity, and improve public-safety network interoperability by leveraging wireless infrastructure, applications and services. Applied technologies include Wi-Fi, Mesh, WiMAX, 3G, 4G, EVDO and a number of hybrid solutions. Several years of wireless-networking experimentation by cities and counties and across government agencies have led to effective solutions and good practices. Moreover, substantial federal funding is available for such discrete applications as video surveillance, intelligent transport systems, field workforce productivity, infrastructure monitoring, remote healthcare, assistance to persons with disabilities, emergency response and public-safety network interoperability. For the past two years, W2i and MultiState Associates, a U.S.-based state and local government relations and procurement resource service, have tracked Requests for Proposals (RFPs) for city, county and state broadband-wireless infrastructure, highlighting significant business opportunities for equipment vendors, service providers, systems integrators and consultants. The number of RFPs/Qs/Is issued by cities and counties for wireless networks has grown 15% year-over-year in the past two years, regaining momentum in Q2 of 2008 after a marked pause in Q4 2007 and Q1 2008. Most notable in the past year, this activity has shifted from citywide wireless networks, whose primary function was intended to provide low-cost public access, toward government application-specific deployments for public safety, the mobile workforce and transportation, with a noticeable acceleration of that trend in the past two quarters.  Project Scope    Q3'06–Q2'07  Q3'07–Q2'08  Low-Cost Public Access  70%  45%  Government Applications  16%  42%  Rural Digital Inclusion  14%  13%              SOURCE: W2i/Multistate Business Opportunities Database Through blog commentaries, white papers, multimedia, a headlines watch, surveys, and webinars, a dozen Expert Zones on W2i.com will catalog the expansion of local-government application areas and the diversity of ecosystem participants: Public Safety and Interoperability Wireless Video and Analytics Mobile Workforce Productivity Utilities and Meter Reading Infrastructure Monitoring Transportation and Traffic Management Countywide Applications Service Providers and Government Systems Integrators OSS for Multipurpose Networks Backhauling Mesh Networks On July 23rd in Atlanta, the W2i Training Academy launches its first professional-development seminar and training to explore through presentations, case studies and a tutorial "Wireless-Enabled Digital Video Surveillance," which is fast emerging in communities as a flexible tool for a variety of applications: Crime deterrence and detection Remote incident tracking Forensics Traffic management E-sentencing Infrastructure monitoring What wireless-networking application area for government do you need to learn more about? Post your comments below.     back Related Items: • Groningen • W2i Finalizes Program Agenda for Digital Cities Convention in Washington, DC • City Services Drive Network in St. Louis • New-Technology Rollouts: Avoid Putting Lipstick on the Pig! • Doug Townsend, IT Director, Medford (OR) - Part 2 • Riverside `08 Comments No records were found. Post new comment: Only registered users can add comments. Please Log-in

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