Big Brother, George Orwell’s character who oversaw everything, would use WiMax today. This wireless technology - similar to Wi-Fi but on a much larger scale and greater speed - promises to become the star of security oriented public policy in various Latin American cities. With a modern Big Brother, municipal authorities will be able to observe the most dangerous areas of the major cities of the region with wireless IP cameras.
To begin with, the use of this technology is one of the cards that Buenos Aires mayor Mauricio Macri is shuffling to combat the growing crime wave in the Argentine capital. “We are designing an integral technology system for security. And installing cameras in the most dangerous areas of the city will form part of this system,” says Mauricio Devoto, in charge of the Electronic Government project, and part of the technical team accompanying Macri.
Today, 54 closed circuit cameras have already been deployed in the Argentine capital, but their use is limited to creating a crime map of the city. “The main difference is that by running the security software on a wireless network, there are no limitations on deployment,” says Sergio Bea, new business director for Nortel Latin America in Miami. “Cables are required to be in place in the case of closed circuit cameras, and even then, there is the possibility that the cables can be stolen, as happens in many cities in our region; furthermore, if there were no cables and no wireless coverage, it is still cheaper to deploy the latter.”
And there are already some examples to keep in mind: six months after implementing the wireless camera system in New Orleans, the number of homicides dropped by 57%, according to Bea. Cities in the developed world are already adding other applications to the deployed cameras, such as software to carry out automatic facial feature recognition to match people caught on camera against photos of wanted individuals. Although, of course, prior to WiMax finally being used among security policies, the technology must provide some answers. In fact, Macri’s team is also studying the use of standard TETRA truncated digital communications, which is a closed network and does not depend on a provider. “It is key in security to not be dependent on providers who also supply the general public,” says Santiago Veiga, a member of the Macri government’s security team. “If there is an attack in Buenos Aires, or a big fire, millions of people will connect through their communications systems, whether cellular phones or WiMax, and it is likely that at that critical moment the communications systems will collapse.”
Doubts aside, Mexico City mayor Marcelo Ebrard already has plans to deploy 4,000 wireless security cameras using WiMax in the capital. Further north in Monterrey, there are already video cameras installed for urban surveillance, over a municipally-owned WiMax network. But it’s not all security. One of the advantages of WiMax, and the reason that experts predict good reception in the region, is because the initial investment is less than Wi-Fi, and does not require cables that would make its deployment difficult and costly. “We are developing business models that allow us to provide these telecom installations economically to rural areas,” says Guillermo Safa, marketing director to the software industry of the Monterrey International City of Knowledge program. “The aim is to unify the demand so that it is profitable for a provider to reach remote towns; if only the secretary of education were to think of providing a connection to a town of 5,000 inhabitants, or the health sector wanted to take telemedicine, then the project would not be justified.”
Other applications being analyzed by some municipal governments in the region range from automatic electric and gas meters, to the possibility of carrying out online inspections, outfitting and control of locations from a PDA. These are alternatives to improve the efficiency of municipal governments. But the greatest attraction of this technology for many community leaders in the region is its usefulness in satisfying the growing demand for greater security in big cities. Big Brother’s eye is already watching.
