PORT ANGELES — A wireless project meant to turn most of the city into a Wi-Fi hot spot and enhance communication among first responders is a few months away from completion, the project manager said Thursday.
The Port Angeles Metro-Net system, a series of devices that will provide mobile Internet access to about 80 percent of the city, is set to undergo a final test in February, said Craig Johnson, vice president of Port Angeles-based Capacity Provisioning Inc., which is installing the system under a $2.7 million contract with City Hall.
“We have already passed two [tests] to reach this point,” Johnson said.
The contract originally called for the system, called a “mesh” network, to be completed in July, Johnson said, so the project is months ahead of schedule.
The main goal is to better connect police officers and firefighter-paramedics, Johnson said, but a separate portion of the network is reserved for public use.
Charles “Doc” Beaudette, general manager of Internet service provider OlyPen, which is facilitating the non-hardware portions of Metro-Net, said that, thus far, the public system has seen a total of only 14 one-day subscriptions, five one-week subscriptions and 10 one-month subscriptions since
Nov. 17.
Beaudette said these numbers at this point in the rollout were expected, adding that he predicts a jump in subscriptions once OlyPen starts advertising the system early next year.
OlyPen will provide each user one free hour per day of access to the mobile system, Beaudette said, with 12 completely free holidays planned for 2013.
Outside of the free hour and days, users will pay $5.95 per day, $15.95 per week and $34.95 per month for the mobile Metro-Net service, Beaudette said.
The public safety portion of the mesh network is almost completed, Police Chief Terry Gallagher said, with police officers already enjoying the benefits of faster and more efficient connectivity with their colleagues.
“We have been immensely satisfied with the performance of the system,” Gallagher said.
Gallagher said the system allows officers to do multiple tasks at a time on their patrol-car-based computers, such as run license plates, check for outstanding warrants and, eventually, monitor surveillance cameras on the downtown waterfront.
“The mesh coupled with the computers in the police cars makes these officers hugely efficient,” Gallagher said.
“It’s not that they can do anything different, but what they do is faster.”
The system also allows police dispatch to know where all 32 patrol vehicles are at any given time via a computer screen, something Gallagher said dispatchers have never before been able to do.
“We’ve moved light-years ahead from where we were a couple of years ago,” Gallagher said.
Security for the mesh network has been one of the main priorities during implementation, Beaudette said, with technicians recently upgrading the public system’s security encryption algorithm to better fit with the desired network speed.
Additionally, Beaudette said, encryption for the public safety portion of the system is completely separate from the public network, meaning a breach in one will not endanger the other.
“As I understand it, [public safety network security] is the most secure available today,” Beaudette said.
“I don’t see a vulnerability there.”
Installation of the city’s 239 mobile wireless access points — roughly 10-inch-by-10-inch boxes with six antennae sticking out the sides — started last March, Johnson said, with 235 installed so far.
Johnson said he expects the remaining four to be installed by month’s end.
The boxes are mounted on power poles and street lights around the city, an attribute of the devices Johnson said has been one of the biggest challenges in ensuring reliable coverage for mobile Internet users, who would connect to the system via a smartphone, tablet computer or laptop.
“In order to connect to [a device], you kind of have to see it,” Johnson said, referring to the “line-of-sight” nature of the connection points.
In addition to the mobile service, OlyPen is rolling out fixed-point access devices, installed in subscribers’ homes or businesses, that will act as a wired Internet connection normally provided through a phone or cable company, Beaudette said.
These fixed-point access devices have been installed in about a dozen test subscribers’ homes so far, with “beta testing,” as this period is called, set to wrap up Monday, Beaudette explained.
Monthly charges for this service, also provided through OlyPen, will range from $17.95 to $37.95 depending on the speed of the service, Beaudette said, with new subscribers being offered a free 30-day trial.
“If you think it’s not working for you, we will come and take away all the equipment and walk away with no obligation [to the customer],” Beaudette said.
People will be able to sign up for fixed-point service Monday, the same day beta testing ends, he added.
Gallagher, one of the beta testers, said the fixed-point device installed in his home is faster than his existing DSL service and has been particularly enjoyed by his two children and the three foreign-exchange students staying at his house.
“All the young people are working on the mesh, and they’ve been very happy,” Gallagher said.
“My son watched the [most recent Seattle] Seahawks game on his laptop and was very pleased with the service.”
Reporter Jeremy Schwartz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jschwartz@peninsuladailynews.com.
