Cape Coral – the “Growth Engine of SW Florida” – is a rapidly growing City on Florida’s south west Gulf coast. Incorporated in 1970, it currently has a population in excess of 150,000 which is growing by about 9,000 inhabitants annually. In addition to being one of the fastest growing areas in Florida it is also the 2nd largest City in the State geographically having an area of just over 114 square miles. The City features thousands of waterfront residential properties on canals, including many with direct, saltwater access to the Gulf. The City’s Public Safety infrastructure includes a centralized Public Safety building housing Police and Fire personnel, eight Fire Stations, and one Police sub station. Up to three additional Fire Stations will be built over the next 2 years to accommodate anticipated population growth. The Public Safety building and the adjacent Fire Station located at the City Centrum are on a City owned fiber backbone for data communications needs. The remaining seven Fire Stations are connected to the Public Safety data center via leased T1 lines. City and commercial fiber is not available at these sites. The Police marine sub-station at the City Yacht Club complex also does not have fiber connectivity. The Police Department has recently taken possession of a state of the art Mobile Incident Command Vehicle and we are seeking ways to improve the data communications link to this vehicle as it is deployed in the field.
The City has selected SECS to install Alvarion wireless systems using the new 4.9 GHz wireless channel authorized by the FCC for Public Safety use to provide high bandwidth service to the Mobile Incident Command Vehicle, the existing seven Fire Stations with T1 connectivity, future Fire Stations, and the Police sub-station. The additional bandwidth will be used to provide significantly better throughput to these locations and to obtain cost reductions by either eliminating the T1 lines or possibly downgrading them to B1 lines to provide emergency back-up. Additionally the City will utilize the increased bandwidth to the Fire Stations to provide either 802.11 or possibly 900 MHz wireless umbrellas around each Fire Station to allow Public Safety vehicles the opportunity to drive in and execute voluminous uploads and downloads. (Our PublicSafety vehicles utilize laptop computers equipped with CDMA cards for field data communication.
Southeastern Communication Service, Inc. is a general contractor specializing in design, engineering, construction and maintenance of wireless communication facilities. Headquartered in Sarasota, Fla. since 1990, the firm has become a leader in the communications construction industry, building and modifying many hundreds of communications sites throughout the southeastern U.S. and the Caribbean. SECS is a subsidiary of WPCS International. Headquarters are located at 2017 Cattlemen Road in Sarasota. For more information about Wi-Fi systems and installations contact Tony Ankersmit at (941) 378-0080 or visit their website at http://www.secs-wireless.com.