SPOTLIGHT: WiFi to the rescue

WiFi to the rescue
As if to add insult to injury, the 9/11 terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina were accompanies by the collapse of communication systems, hampering rescue work and emergency response efforts. The communication system connecting emergency crews proved more robust during the July 7, 2005 terrorist attacks in London, but still, a recent government report on the attack highlighted that the first responder groups sometimes had difficulty talking to each other because they all used different emergency communications systems. A year after the attack, Anvil Technologies, a Canadian wireless systems integrator, and Primetech, a UK satellite services company, demonstrated demonstration Anvil's solution to the  interoperability problem. Anvil's WiFi-based RECoN system was put through the paces at the Aldwych subway station in central London--and it worked. Report