Being away from desks and detached from cords is an attractive draw for most government agencies, but not all of them are up to the task of implementing such freedom.

Despite the benefits that wireless technology offers, the move to widespread wireless adoption has been slow. Resistance to change, security concerns and a lack of technical and financial resources, particularly in rural areas, have hampered government efforts to implement mobile services. As such, wireless technology may at times appear elusive to government, as the uncertainty of its potential becomes the catalyst for inactivity.

At the other end of the wireless spectrum are those jurisdictions that have dedicated themselves to wirelessly enabling their employees and citizens, thereby extending the reach of government services. Agencies at the forefront of wireless implementation must understand the role they're in and help to define the future of wireless technology for large and small governments.

Whatever the reasons for or against, wireless technology is a major part of the future. But broad implementation will demand collaboration on the part of government, wireless carriers, device manufacturers and application designers to break down the barriers that stand between reticent jurisdictions and a new breed of mobile applications.

The Need for Mobility
Identifying the need for wireless implementation is the first step. Until last September, the perception was that wireless was something governments should be doing, but it was not something that was crucial to everyday operations. Suddenly, interoperable wireless communication became a vital part of planning for the future.

"The bottom line is, given what we've seen happen in the last few months, I don't think agencies can afford not to do it," said Charley Vlcek, vice president of strategic operations of Aether Systems. "One of the things that people saw immediately upon the Pentagon disaster or what happened at the World Trade Center is that as soon as the agencies got into a wide area response mode, they realized that their private radio voice systems couldn't talk to one another. Cellular connectivity was shot because everybody in the New York area was trying to use their cell phones at once."

The lessons learned from this disaster have forced the issue of compatible communications. "Wireless data is one of the few infrastructures that allows them to continue operating during periods of extremely high demand and also allows them to interoperate between agencies," Vlcek said. "In most jurisdictions, the police department cannot talk to the fire department without arranging a phone patch through their dispatch systems."

Methods to Mobility
The more governments understand the importance of implementing wireless functionality, the more they realize the significance of the planning stage. There are many courses of action to consider. Iowa leads the nation in the production of corn, hogs and soybeans. Tom Shepherd, director of the state's IT Innovations, would like Iowa also to be first in broadband wireless communications by 2005. "If we have a current and modern infrastructure for technology in Iowa, it serves as an economic development tool," he said.

Deciding where wireless technology fits within Iowa is the reason for Wireless Iowa, a joint venture between the Iowa Communications Network and the state's Information Technology Department to assess where the state needs wireless technology and to then take the steps necessary for implementing it. Iowa expects to work closely with commercial wireless providers in the ambitious undertaking.

"We want the industry to tell us where they think they're at in answering our RFI," said Shepherd. "If we go out today and demand 3G -- if it's just not available in the market or if the infrastructure components [are] available but the devices aren't -- it doesn't do us any good. We can demand all day long and it'll get nowhere."