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AT&T has signed an agreement with the Governor's Division of Emergency Management (GDEM) for the state of Texas to support the Texas Special Needs Evacuation Tracking System (SNETS), the company reported Monday.
SNETS represents the country's first statewide citizen-evacuation system. It relies on a variety of radio-frequency identification (RFID), wireless and mobile data technologies to serve-up instant information on evacuees. Real-time data enables the GDEM to support evacuees and their families during a crisis better.
The GDEM is responsible for assisting cities, counties and state agencies in planning and implementing emergency-management programs, as well as managing a hazard emergency-management program. Under the terms of the contract, AT&T will serve as the primary provider and support wireless RFID service for a statewide emergency-evacuation tracking system that was deployed in 2006 and 2007.
In the event of an emergency evacuation, evacuees will register on-site and receive a RFID wristband from Radiant RFID. The GDEM will scan the wristband with a wireless Motorola reader as the evacuee board a state-contracted vehicle. The information is added to the bus-boarding log, and sent wirelessly to The University of Texas Center for Space Research data center. Each vehicle will run a WebTech global positioning system (GPS) to track the location along the evacuation route.
When the bus reaches its destination, the system will update evacuee profiles and provide real-time information to authorities with software from Retriever. It will enable state employees to respond to inquiries from the public about the safety of evacuated family members and to reunite families that have been separated during a large-scale disaster. Texas will use Motorola's rugged handheld computers to enroll and track evacuees throughout the process.
RFID grew in popularity several years ago when retail giants Best Buy, Target and Wal-Mart Stores moved forward on plans to have their top suppliers affix passive RFID tags to cartons and pallets to track cases of Kimberly-Clark Pampers and Procter & Gamble Charmin from manufacturing facilities to warehouse, and on to stores.
"The end-user community gets it now and knows that RFID can work," says Michael Liard, research director for RFID and contactless innovations at ABI Research, during a recent interview. "While there are many supply chain projects underway, other types of companies are seriously looking at RFID to solve some of the business problems they face."
Emergency response systems, security and supply chain, and pharmaceutical applications are some of the projects pushing revenue from RFID deployments to $8.4 billion worldwide in 2012, up from $3.8 billion in 2007, according to a recent study from ABI Research.
AT&T's wireless network will provide GDEM with high-speed network access and services, including around-the-clock network monitoring to ensure the quality transfer of voice and data traffic runs smooth.
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