Kyotango City is a new Japan municipality created by the merger of six Kyoto prefecture towns. A secure, high-capacity multiservice optical backbone network from Nortel Networks now connects the city halls in each of the six original towns – Mineyama, Omiya, Amino, Tango, Yae and Kumihama – to create a 'community intranet'. "In order to launch our new community services initiative, we looked for a highly reliable, secure, high-bandwidth network solution that was capable of carrying a wide variety of applications as well as providing a platform for future growth and expansion," said Masanori Kazuta, assistant chief, Information Systems, Strategic Planning, Kyotango City. "In terms of security, which is extremely important, we especially value the IEEE 802.1x and MAC address security functions."
The network allows Kyotango City residents on-site access to such e-Government services as e-voting, e-booking of municipal facilities, employment support, and remote medical consultations. It also permits the city government to deploy disaster prevention services. There are plans for eventual metro-wide broadband connectivity to enable home- and business-based access to the Kyotango City community intranet. The new network was implemented by Nortel Networks Japan and local business partners Nihon Unisys and UNIADEX.
The Kyotango City network is one of the major end-to-end e-Government deployments in Japan and an example of how local government can cost-effectively contribute to the realisation of the national e-Japan strategy to create a knowledge-based society.
Quelle: Public Sector Technology & Management, 07.06.2004
