Location(s)
The Umatilla county network is a rural, county-wide wireless network. The initial motivation for the network came from the need for a system to notify emergency responders and residents in case of a poisonous gas plume coming from a nearby U.S. Army depot, where chemical weapons are incinerated. Research for the network begin in 2002, the network went live with CSEPP (Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program) in 2004, and public safety and other applications were deployed shortly after that. The network is privately owned and operated by EZ Wireless; the municipalities are network tenants. The network has improved local connectivity, because before the network was built only dial-up service was available to county residents.
Learn More:
Rural Wireless: Umatilla County built a network for an application it doesn't want to deploy…and now uses it for everything else. Mike Perkowski. Muniwireless Magazine, March 2007, p. 28-34. http://www.muniwireless.com/reports/MW005.pdf
Wi-Fi Brings Broadband to Rural Washington. Stephen Lawson, IDG News Service. August 23, 2004.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/08/23/HNwifiwash_1.html
