San Francisco Government Goes 4G With Motorola

San Francisco hashired Motorola to create a 4G infrastructure utilizing Long-Term Evolution, or LTE, technology for the city’s data network, which will only be accessible for public safety services and law enforcement. According to Motorola’s press release, “As part of the Bay Area Regional Interoperable Communications System (BayRICS) plan, the system will serve multiple agencies across the greater bay area, including San Francisco, Alameda County/Oakland, Contra Costa County, as well as the cities of Santa Clara and Sunnyvale.” The Bay Area governments’ 4G network will operate in the 700 MHz spectrum.

According to Motorola, the infrastructure should go up this year and the system should be accessible to users in early 2011. This will be the first 4G network buildout in the nation for public safety. According to Alameda County Sheriff Gregory J. Ahern, “This is one of the most, if not the greatest, technological advancements in my thirty year law enforcement career, and it will have a huge impact on our abilities to provide improved services to our communities.”

The use of the 700 MHz spectrum by public safety officials could help to serve as an indicator for the consumer-targeted LTE services offered by Verizon Wireless. With LTE, Verizon has the theoretical capability to achieve up to 50 Mbps download speeds, but in reality consumers should see downloads closer to 5-12 Mbps in real-time use upon launch.

Filed in Cellphones..

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