Allen Taps Scientel Solutions for Smart City Network

The city of Allen has awarded Scientel Solutions LLC a contract to deploy a Smart City Network Platform in the city, with an expected completion date in October.

Scientel is a Plano-based universal system integrator. It will partner with Allen in making the city a smarter place to work, live, play, and visit by integrating information, communications, and Internet of Things technologies to manage the city’s assets, according to LaunchDFW.

“Adding this high-speed wireless backbone will provide improved network reliability for critical locations such as fire stations and police substation, ensuring our first responders can get the information they need at all times,” Allen IT Director Eric Matthews said. “The new wireless network also ensures that if the network connecting city buildings is cut in one location, the city will remain operational as digital traffic will reroute around the network across the new wireless links.”

SCIENTEL WILL REPLACE EXISTING TECHNOLOGIES

In the deal, Scientel will remove existing technologies and replace them with a highly redundant 1.4 Gbps network to route and switch between Allen’s internal network, the internet, and the cloud, LaunchDFW said.

“This is the foundation to Allen the ‘Smart City,’ and it will be completed before the end of October.”

Nelson C. Santos

Scientel Solutions is a certified competitive local exchange carrier, LaunchDFW said, and it has all the end-to-end and cloud network components needed to implement the technologies — fiber, wireless, and carrier-owned or company-owned infrastructure.

“Once the Smart City Network Platform is deployed, Allen will be able to confidently move forward with other initiatives such as nodes to help optimize traffic and parking, enhance public safety, environmental awareness, and overall livability for Allen residents,” Scientel Solutions President Nelson C. Santos said. “This is the foundation to Allen the ‘Smart City,’ and it will be completed before the end of October.”

Allen residents also will be able to use high-speed Wi-FI at some city park facilities, including the renovated Ford Pool, and that visitors to the Allen Senior Recreation Center will experience a more than tenfold increase in internet speeds for online research, entertainment, and learning.

Allen isn’t the only Smart Cities initiative making the news.

The Living Lab is a critical element of the smart cities program of the Dallas Innovation Alliance. [Courtesy Dallas Innovation Alliance]

Forbes cited Dallas’ Smart Cities efforts in a recent article about how cities are using technology to improve the lives of their residents.

Forbes said cities that don’t hop on board and initiate Smart Cities changes risk falling behind cities implementing the new technologies.

The publication said the Living Lab spearheaded by the Dallas Innovation Alliance in the Dallas West End is an example of a public-private partnership that is using its resources to make the city smarter through technologies such as LED street lamps that send notifications when a bulb is out.

Soon, the West End will have public Wi-Fi, smart parking where spots can be reserved, trash cans with sensors that monitor their capacity, and better water management systems, Forbes said.