Enhancing Interoperability

AllCoNet2 -- one of the oldest municipal wireless networks in the United States -- supplies cost-effective telecommunications and Internet services to government offices, schools, public safety agencies, and the public in Allegany County, Md. The network has received a "Smart Practices" designation by the National Incident Management Center (NIMS) Integration Center department of the U.S. Government Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for providing innovative and highly-effective communications services to local public safety agencies.



FEMA's Smart Practices designations provide examples of how various problems encountered by emergency response agencies have been solved.



"Allegany County, Md., has found a way to provide its response agencies with advanced telecommunications services such as enhanced interoperability, mobile high-speed data terminals and more by using innovative fixed wireless technology," says the designation. "The county's challenging terrain and the economics of a rural population base has made wireless systems or establishing newly wired infrastructure throughout the county difficult to achieve."



AllCoNet2 has been in continuous development and evolution for more than a decade. Internet access for residential and commercial customers in Allegany County is provided under Open Access provisions by Internet Service Providers that resell AllCoNet2 services. In 2006, CONXX, Inc., which operates AllCoNet2 under contract and owns the unique technology developed for AllCoNet2, will begin providing outdoor Wi-Fi services in Cumberland, Md., also under open access provisions.