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Eastern Oregon’s 700 square mile WiFi cloud is getting lots of press thanks to a recent AP story that appeared in Wired, USA Today, ABC and numerous newspapers. It’s old news, of course.

EZ Wireless turned much of Umatilla and Morrow counties into a Wi-Fi cloud a couple of years ago the 600 square mile cloud, encompassed four counties and seven cities for use by the Oregon Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program (CSEPP). A newly developed Incident Response Information System (IRIS) will deliver emergency management services to rugged handheld and laptop computers.

Hermiston and Umatilla Oregon are sitting on a stockpile of deadly nerve gas. The depot stores 220,604 munitions and 7.4 million pounds of deadly nerve and mustard agents. The chemicals being incinerated in a plant specially built for the purpose, but near the town of Hermiston and other communities. The $1.5 million project will help monitor the region, provide communications and allow Hermiston police to control traffic lights on the north-south Highway 395 corridor during an evacuation.

Morrow County Emergency Management Department signed a two-year contract with EZ Wireless for access to the network, and the cities of Boardman and Hermiston also are leasing use of the network for their police, fire and medical emergency workers.

To communicate over the wireless network, IRZ integrated mobile handheld computers for the safety forces. The VAR chose the Tripod Data Systems (Corvallis, OR). A Recon handheld with a military-approved rating for drops, vibration, and temperature extremes is utilized. The handheld can accommodate technology add-ons through its CompactFlash slots, which IRZ used to add GPS.

“We developed geographical, information-based software that displays maps and critical facilities, like schools, hospitals, and other special needs buildings,” says Emmerson. With that software, users of the mobile device can see where a chemical plume is traveling and what citizen locations will be affected. The users can also communicate with one another and from the field to the Emergency Operations Centers in real time.

Some 66 towers standing 75 to 150 feet tall provide coverage. The Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program is a core tenant and has purchased two years of service.

The first phase of the broadband network provided Internet data services at up to 15 megabits/sec to first responders, government agencies and [eventually] private homes. The second phase, with voice-over-IP service, begin in the summer and added seven more cities and 200 square miles to the system’s area of coverage.

First responders can obtain any information from any location within the city and while mobile using a laptop, or handheld PDA. They can securely connect to their office network or to the Internet while in the field to allow them to respond to emergencies fast and effectively.

Who has the “world’s largest WiFi cloud”? Depends who you talk to:

Related DailyWireless stories include; Umatilla’s 600 square mile cloud, Fred Ziari’s 700 Mile Cloud, Proxim’s 700 Mile Cloud, Vivato’s Huge Washington WiFi Cloud, Regional Hotspots, Samsung Demos WiBro, Taipei Unwired.

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