Calumet City Uses New Cisco Wireless Technology to Enhance Communications and Public Safety; New 4.9 Gigahertz Wireless Solution Provides Licensed, Secure, High Speed Communications

Business Wire, July 19, 2005

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Cisco Systems, Inc., (Nasdaq:CSCO) today announced that Calumet City, Illinois, is using new, innovative Cisco wireless technology to enhance departmental communications and improve citizen safety in the community. The newly available Cisco wireless technology is based on the 4.9 gigahertz (GHz) wireless band for support of public safety services.

Calumet City is currently using Cisco's new 4.9 GHz wireless mobile interface card in the Cisco 3200 Series Wireless & Mobile Routers located in police patrol vehicles to remotely access high-bandwidth data applications and enhance communications among police personnel and other local police agencies. For example, the new wireless technology is being used to access a local area intelligence data network provided by the Chicago Police Department. This enables Calumet City police to have real time access to information related to recent crimes that have taken place in the region.

"The 'public safety' designation and the lack of interference from other wireless networks makes the 4.9GHz technology more secure, while also delivering increased performance and coverage for our public safety network," said Patrick O'Meara, Calumet City police chief. "Cisco has proven to be a valuable partner to Calumet City, and we look forward to utilizing this new wireless technology as a progressive approach to fighting crime and delivering improved public safety services."

Calumet City has been working with Cook County to ensure the equipment and infrastructure used in this deployment is interoperable and complimentary with the Cook County's strategy for wireless communications. Standards based technologies are key to improving the communications not only within the city but also with local county agencies as well.

"The Cisco 4.9 GHz wireless technology represents a milestone for public safety agencies with the use of the licensed band approved recently by the FCC," said Sam Ezekiel, senior director with Cisco's Access Business Unit. "This technology will allow agencies, such as the Calumet City Police Department, to create a secure, reliable wireless network for high-speed mobile and stationary outdoor applications citywide."

Calumet City has plans to integrate 4.9GHz technology along side its existing 802.11b wireless network infrastructure, and will begin installing additional Cisco 3200 Mobile Access Routers with 4.9 GHz technology into additional police vehicles, and one of its fire command vehicles to improve the effectiveness of its response, and the incident command process. In addition, Calumet City intends to use its wireless network over time to enable new applications in the area of public safety, including handheld scanning devices, in-vehicle ticket printing, and voice recognition commands.

4.9 Gigahertz -- Designed for public safety applications

In 2003 the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) allocated 50 MHz of spectrum in the 4.9 GHz band to public safety services. Public safety agencies can use this licensed 4.9 GHz band to implement wireless networks with advanced services for the transmission of mission critical information such as streaming video, data access, transfer of maps, and missing person images.

This new standard technology will provide public safety agencies a new option for high speed, secure, reliable IP communications networks, while creating opportunities to deploy new applications improving communications and increasing the amount of information available to field personnel.

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