The City Of Wichita Selects T-Mobile As Its Wireless Service Provider For Several Of Its Departments
Cost savings, reducing emergency response times and T-Mobile's network are top reasons the City of Wichita purchased from T-Mobile BlackBerry smartphones for its city staff and 4G Mobile Hotspot devices for its police, fire and central inspections departments
T-Mobile USA, Inc. announced recently that the City of Wichita in Kansas, in efforts to decrease its wireless spend and reduce emergency response times, has chosen T-Mobile as its wireless service provider across several of its departments. The city has purchased approximately 400 T-Mobile 4G Mobile Hotspot devices for its fire, central inspections and police departments. In addition, 130 BlackBerry Curve 9300 smartphones have been purchased for the City of Wichita's office and field staff who need to be in regular communications with one another and to communicate more efficiently.
"The City of Wichita chose T-Mobile after an extensive competitive review in which it experienced great results testing our 4G Mobile Hotspot devices, also known as Wi-Fi devices that convert and broadcast cellular signals into Wi-Fi signals, essentially creating personal Wi-Fi hotspots for police officers," said Jim Mills, vice president, general manager, Great Plains Region, T-Mobile USA.
"With our 4G Mobile Hotspot devices utilized with the police officers' laptops in their squad cars, the City of Wichita police officers apparently were able to login to their laptops faster than with any other solution tested, which is a huge benefit for first responders. In addition, the City of Wichita awarded T-Mobile and our business partner, 4G Mobility, the deal because of the quality of our handsets and network coverage."
Before the purchase of the Wi-Fi devices, the City of Wichita used 3G mobile broadband PC cards. One of the advantages of switching from these cards to T-Mobile 4G Mobile Hotspots is that the city can easily implement its anticipated public safety initiatives that will require having Wi-Fi access in its squad cars, including the addition of new Wi-Fi-accessible devices, such as receipt printers for mobile ticketing.
In May of this year, T-Mobile doubled the theoretical peak download speed of its 4G network to 42 Mbps in the Wichita area, providing customers with increased capacity, reliability and even more consistent speeds. Since the beginning of 2010, T-Mobile has invested approximately $6M in continuous network upgrades and improvements in Wichita and now has more than 60 cell sites operating 4G service in the area. T-Mobile has financial investments planned for continuous improvements throughout the year, building on the strength of America's Largest 4G Network.
"This is a terrific win for T-Mobile in Wichita and in the Great Plains region, as we add the City of Wichita to our list of business and local government customers here in Wichita," Mills said. "At T-Mobile, we have fantastic offerings and services for local, county and state governments nationwide."
About T-Mobile USA, Inc.
Based in Bellevue, Wash., T-Mobile USA, Inc. is the U.S. wireless operation of Deutsche Telekom AG . By the end of the first quarter of 2011, approximately 128 million mobile customers were served by the mobile communication segments of the Deutsche Telekom group — 33.6 million by T-Mobile USA — all via a common technology platform based on GSM and UMTS and additionally HSPA+/HSPA+42. T-Mobile USA's innovative wireless products and services help empower people to connect to those who matter most. Multiple independent research studies continue to rank T-Mobile USA among the highest in numerous regions throughout the U.S. in wireless customer care and call quality. For more information, visit http://www.T-Mobile.com, www.telekom.de/investor-relations, http://www.t-mobile.com.
SOURCE: T-Mobile USA, Inc.