2005: The Year Of Mobile Broadband
Great strides were made in the development of mobile broadband technologies for law enforcement during 2004, but even better things are expected for 2005, including the possibility of large-scale implementations of mobile technologies.
As 2005 unfolds, the way officers work in the field and the way their departments support them will begin to change as new broadband solutions are implemented. The coming year should produce the first trials of Voice over IP (VoIP) on the wireless public safety networks voice.
Truly intelligent incident-management systems should begin to come into their own during 2005 to help officers communicate at incident sites. These systems will be driven by the incorporation of voice, video, data, and location-aware applications.
By the end of 2005, leading-edge incident management systems could be ready for rollout. Public safety communications will consist of an array of approaches that take into account such factors as size, performance, and cost.
Mobile WiMax (IEEE 802.11e), which the public safety community finds very appealing, is unlikely to be finished or ready for 2005, even though proponents of the technology claim it will be ready by late 2005.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from the Law Enforcement Technology (11/04) Vol. 31, No. 11, P. 54; Rotondo, Rick .
