National Work Agency building islandwide Public Emergency Network - Early indications of GOVNet WAN and ITA-run Automated Traffic Ticketing System

Remember the National Camera  Network that Ministry of National Security Peter Bunting had proposed soon after the Boston Bombings in Boston, Massachusetts back in April 2013 as stated in my blog article entitled “GOJ to upgrade NWA's CCTV Traffic Monitoring Network to give Police more eyes in Private Places - The Da Vinci Code for Automated Traffic Ticketing System and 1984”?

Well on Wednesday September 10^th 2014, Head of the NWA (National Works Agency), E.G. Hunter that his agency was building just such a PEN (Public Emergency Network) as stated in the article “Gov't eyes nationwide monitoring system”, published Friday September 12, 2014, The Jamaica Gleaner .

This announcement was made in Parliament and takes the form of a series of agreements with Telecom Providers to provide Structured Cableing and Fiber Optic Connectivity to interconnect HD CCTV Cameras to their current Network in an upgrade that would give them eyes and possibly ears at various Government Buildings.

This is just really for the NWA to monitor public Buildings to make sure that they're protected and property is secure based on the words of the Head of the NWA (National Works Agency), E.G. Hunter, quote: “That is to be used to establish what is called a public emergency network.

This building (Gordon House) is to be connected to that network. The works towards Papine (St Andrew) that you see is to connect the Ministry of Agriculture, [and the] Scientific Research Council. The ODPEM (Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management) is already connected”.

Naturally their PEN is going to be islandwide monitoring of GOJ assets. But with that much capacity being used to just watch buildings, it seems that it may have a dual use. Turns out it does.

Manager of Communication and Customer Services at the NWA Stephen Shaw hinted that it will be used to build out an Automated Traffic Management System. Head of the NWA (National Works Agency), E.G. Hunter, suggests that the GOJ will have free access to the Network for their purposes as well, quote: “The cables [are] being laid by [a] cable company and … telecoms companies. We have an understanding that a certain portion of the capacity of those cables is [to be] given to the Government - to the NWA – free”.

NWA Network - Early indications of GOVNet WAN (Wide Area Network) and Automated Traffic Ticketing System

So combining their statements, we may be witness to the early stages of the build out of the Automated Traffic Ticketing System I'd predicted in my Geezam blog article entitled “Jamaica’s National Security Ministry plans CCTV Network and Automated Traffic Ticketing System”. 

The Automated Traffic Ticket System will need to have all the following necessary features in place after the upgrade:

1.      A LPT (License Plate Reader) to allowing Police to read License Plates

2.      An islandwide ban on the use of Mobile phone while driving

3.      CCN NOC (Network Operating Center) to monitor the Live Video CCTV Network

4.      Facial Recognition Database for islandwide Automated Electronic Traffic Ticketing

5.      Handheld ticketing units for Jamaican Police

6.      Massive Server Storage Network provided by GovNet

We might also be seeing the early formation of the GOVNet WAN (Wide Area Network) that Minister of Science, Technology Energy and Mining Phillip Paulwell had mentioned back in November 2012 would be built to interconnect Government Building and replace the need to use Paper in Parliament as noted in my blog article entitled “GOJ Parliamentarians upgraded to Microsoft Surface Tablets and GovNET Wide Area Network - Minister Paulwell efforts to reduce paper may accelerate Jamaican Tablet Adoption”.

This new Network will most likely be using Servers running on Linux Distribution Server OS to remove the added cost of paying for Microsoft Licenses, a move which would also make them secure.

The use of Linux Servers would also remove their current problem of hackers breaking into their Government Database while simultaneous removing the need for paper as explained in my blog article entitled “GOJ securing Government Websites against Hackers - Linux-based GovNET to remove Windows vulnerabilities and change Human Behaviour”.

It has the same ambitious aims as the TIS (Tablets in Schools) Project as described in my blog article entitled “Ministry of Education Select Content for Jamaican TIS Project - How Tablets will Empower Interactive Learning and make Students Aim High”. However, it'll be geared towards the Parliamentarians by avoiding having to lug around huge amounts of paper to Parliament by placing all GOJ Documents into a Virtual Cloud Serer run on Linux Servers.

Thus GOJ Documents would be secure and available to all parliamentarians and GPJ workers on their Laptops, smartphones or Tablets securely and at a lower cost, all interconnected over the NWA's PEN. Due to the excess capacity on their Network, they'll also be able to carry Data Traffic from the HD CCTV Cameras that are a part of the Automated Traffic Ticketing System.

NWA PEN Strikes again - ITA to run the Automated Traffic Ticketing Network to suspend Licenses

So I guess they might be using the excess capacity in the 100MBps E-Learning Phase II Fiber Optic Network being built by Telecom Provider LIME and Triple Play Provider FLOW that'll be used to interconnect schools to the Internet and create CAP (Community Access Points) as explained in my blog article entitled “LIME, FLOW and the $JA543-million Internet plan - Ebony and Ivory”.

It'll be interesting to see if the coming amendments in the Roads Traffic Act, which has been amended to give the ITA (Island Traffic Authority) the power to suspend Traffic Licenses as explained in my blog article entitled “Island Traffic Authority to be part of the Road Traffic Act - How HD CCTV Cameras and Rear-View Cameras reduce Vehicles fatalities” will put them in charge of manning those HD CCTV Cameras that are a part of the Automated Traffic Ticketing System.

No timeline given but expect that the NWA will be all eyes by 2015 with a similar announcement for the Automated Traffic Ticketing Network and the GOVNet WAN (Wide Area Network) coincidentally coming on stream at around the same time!