June 21, 2004 (Computerworld) --
New York City plans to build a public safety wireless network of unprecedented scale and scope, including the capacity to provide tens of thousands of mobile users with the ability to send and receive data while traveling at speeds of up to 70 mph citywide. Bids from vendors are due next month, and Gino Menchini, commissioner of the city's Department of Information Technology & Telecommunications, said he expects to award contracts for three-month pilot projects to multiple bidders by year's end. The final contract is expected to cover five years, with options for two five-year renewals. Menchini described the planned network as "the most challenging and most comprehensive" wireless project that he's aware of -- an assertion that was backed up by vendors that have seen the request for proposals issued by the city. "No one has ever attempted this before on such a scale," said Roger Skidmore, vice president and chief product officer at Austin-based Wireless Valley Communications Inc., which sells software for designing and managing wireless systems. In fact, some vendors have asked the city whether it would scale back some of its requirements, such as a mandate to support 2Mbit/sec. data rates and streaming video from thousands of users simultaneously. But city officials rejected the requests in written responses. The RFP is "demanding and aggressive," Menchini said, but he believes that its requirements can be met. He declined to disclose the projected cost of the project, saying he didn't want to influence the bidding process. Mike Doble, a consultant at the Public Safety Communications Resource Center in San Ramon, Calif., estimated that it would cost about $500 million to develop the network architecture and install the wireless network plus handheld PCs and other mobile devices. An executive from a vendor that's involved in the bidding said the price tag could reach $1 billion. Menchini said the network would provide mobile users from the New York police, fire and emergency medical service departments with broadband access to information such as mug shot and fingerprint databases and building floor plans. The city also wants to use the network to control traffic signals and support an automatic vehicle-location system that would be tied into its dispatch systems. Installation Wanted Soon Plans call for the wireless network to support up to 5,000 end users initially and then be expanded. The RFP doesn't specify a rollout date, but Menchini said he wants installation of the network to start "as soon as possible." Menchini added that the pilot projects should be conducted by early next spring, if not sooner. The results will be used to evaluate which technologies should be used in the
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