The Excellence in Public/Private Partnership Awards were established by The United States Conference of Mayors to recognize achievements made possible by the partnerships between cities and companies across the nation. The awards were presented at The U.S. Conference of Mayors' 74th Winter Meeting in Washington, D.C.
Corpus Christi partnered with Northrop Grumman's Information Technology (IT) sector to install a city-owned, multi-purpose wireless broadband network to serve as the backbone for improved e-government services. The network's ubiquitous coverage, ease-of-use, capacity and security allow Corpus Christi to address the operational efficiency challenges faced by all local governments, and in turn position itself as an attractive place to do business, live and work.
The City of Alexandria, Va., and Comcast received an Excellence in Public/Private Partnerships Award for the city's Institutional Network, or I-Net. The award honors the city and Comcast for the long-term joint development of I-Net.
I-Net, which began in 1994, is a citywide fiber optic network that provides a variety of data, voice, and video communications capabilities to city government facilities, libraries, recreation centers, and public schools.
I-Net, which is the first of its kind in Virginia, now connects nearly 100 municipal and school facilities and proves to be essential by providing direct high-speed connectivity that does not rely on the Internet. It also provides for secure remote access by city employees and contractors.
The network supports the city's enterprise electronic mail, calendaring, and database systems; gives employees access to internal application servers and the Internet; and serves as a backup link for the City's E-911 system and the primary link between the police and fire communications centers for the Computer Aided Dispatch system. The I-Net also provides in-classroom video services in public schools, which are used for communication between school sites and for distance learning and videoconferencing. An internal streaming video server supports digitized training videos, webcasting, and webconferencing.
