It is our opinion, after the success in how wireless technology played such a critical role the California power crisis, that communication is going to be a key factor for emergency services agencies in moving forward with our homeland security efforts. Because our emergency services personnel are typically mobile, especially during a major crisis or disaster, wireless technology will play a critical role in how we communicate, now, and in the future. Solutions will (and some have already) reach well beyond just dispatching and acknowledgement, and provide many real-time capabilities in the field to assist every aspect of our emergency service organizations, and at every level. Today, many of the cellular providers are just now supporting the transmission of pictures over their networks. Nextel for example is already up and running with a GPS enhanced network with devises (cell phones with Assisted GPS [A-GPS] imbedded chips) for human asset tracking. Companies such as Microsoft (mappoint.NET), Dynamic Mobile Data, Airtrak.com and hundreds of others already support map and plotting services that compliment this technology. Tomorrow, even the smallest of agencies will be able to affordably set up multiple mobile video feeds so a central command can actually monitor events visually and in real time. This is an analysis of just an incremental step in a larger vision of the power and capabilities of wireless solutions to come.
As with most technology, the capabilities of vendors, and in this case both wired and wireless, are typically well out in front of organizations adopting the latest technology. This study will show that with emergency service organizations and first responders, this is almost always the case.