PTI and Corpus Christi Celebrate Completion Of Wireless Network

December 5, 2006—More than 100 government officials and technology vendors from across the country helped the City of Corpus Christi, Texas, witness the completion of the City’s 147-square-mile multipurpose wireless broadband network at the PTI seminar Wi-Fi Done Right.

Corpus Christi - a city of 293,000 located on the Gulf of Mexico approximately 200 miles southwest of Houston - began work on the project in 2003 while investigating how to improve its meter-reading system. The possibilities grew as City officials discussed the uses of municipal wireless networks and established partnerships with private industry to develop and bring the project to fruition.

PTI served as the City’s primary consultant for the project. Network build-out took 18 months to complete. Successfully completed, it is now the single largest municipal-scale wireless network anywhere in the world. Corpus Christi was named a PTI Innovation Lab for this project.

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The seminar began with a welcome by Mayor Henry Garrett, a presentation by City Manager George “Skip” Noe on the organizational and business process issues that the City needed to address to make the network a success, and a presentation by Chuck Tybur of Intel on the Digital Communities concept.

Corpus Christi staff then described the testing of the various applications through the City’s “Proof of Concept” process. Topics for the Proofs of Concept included the Health-e-Cities Initiative, Automated Meter Reading, Public Safety Video Technology, Building Inspections, Education and Digital Inclusion.

Seminar participants then traveled via city buses equipped with laptops for online access to a demonstration area where attendees had the opportunity to see first-hand how more than 30 Wi-Fi applications work or are planned in the areas of business process improvement, public safety, education, digital inclusion, and communications.

Partners for the seminar and celebration, in addition to PTI and the City of Corpus Christi, included Intel, Northrop Grumman, Sprint, and Tropos Networks.

Presentations from this event, December 5, 2006, Corpus Christi TX:

The Big Picture: Why Fi by City Manager George “Skip” Noe
Digital Communities by Chuck Tybur of Intel
Proof of Concept Results by Corpus Christi staff

In addition, PTI has published a document detailing the Wi-Fi applications that the City has developed, implemented, or is in the process of implementing.

12-08-2006     Send a link     Archive     Print version