The cities of Chattanooga and Collegedale are beginning conversations about a wireless network buildout that is expected to eventually cover the entire county.
Chattanooga has been using the system to support surveillance cameras as well as "countless [other] applications ... for some time," said Dan Johnson, chief of staff for Mayor Ron Littlefield.
"All sorts of devices can use that," he said in regards to the infrastructure, "cameras, radios and other kinds of devices that technology allows you to communicate with. It's not just surveillance, it's used as a communication device. You'd only use surveillance in areas needed to be surveyed. We're not going to have a mass proliferation of cameras."
Johnson estimates there are already probably 200 cameras deployed around the area, both inside and outside buildings, throughout Coolidge Park, on bridges and "some of them I won't tell you where they are - that just needs to be kept secret."
"You're going to see a lot more of these," said Hamilton County Sheriff Jim Hammond. "Any place we put one is going to make sense, a high-alert area or traffic [congestion spot]."
Johnson said the buildout should be completed within the next two years.
The infrastructure is already being used in a variety of other ways. The updating and linking of traffic signals in the downtown area as well as the electronic boards now seen on interstates and headed for major access points around Chattanooga are some examples.
There are at least 56 different applications available to the city of Chattanooga alone, Johnson said.
Once the buildout is complete, he envisions bringing community stakeholders to the table. He said the infrastructure should be able to house "close to infinite" users in a variety of applications.
"Everybody will pay their own way, whatever agency becomes involved," he said. "I could foresee eventually having one in front of every bank, but it would be up to the bank to do that. We're still in the rollout phase, not in the signing-up stage. As we roll it out we will get with some of the other users, which might be considered commercial users."
Emergency services personnel are already benefitting from the system, he said.
The system uses IP addresses like the one assigned to personal computers to provide access. Using the IP address of a particular camera, authorized users can access it from any computer or equipped portable device.
"The ones that need to know, the fire department and police department, will have access to all," said Johnson.
Due to the security applications, most of the infrastructure is being paid for using Homeland Security grants, according to him. With the money-saving measures possible, Johnson said he doesn't foresee funding becoming an issue, even without government grants.
"It's very important to doing business," he said. "We are saving manpower and using manpower to a greater extent. That's a way of generating revenue because we're saving it on other areas."
The system builds on the speed and coverage capabilities of EPB's fiber optic network and smart grid, allowing instantaneous updates and entries from the field and saving a variety of employees the time and energy of going back to the office, said Johnson.
The city of Collegedale became involved in the process due to recent vandalism on its Greenway. When Southern Adventist University came forward with its own plan to install cameras around campus, the city began approaching other local stakeholders to create an area-wide network.
"The whole purpose of what we're doing today is [creating] a secure network for businesses and public safety at a very fast speed," said Collegedale Police Chief Brian Hickman. "As our future growth continues, we wanted to get a foundation in place now for that future growth and basically bring everybody together so we could all grow together under the fastest wireless service in the nation. The city of Chattanooga was the first in the nation [to utilize it]. We're hoping to be No. 2."
Hickman noted the commercial applications for entities brought onto the network, which supports 300 megabytes in either direction.