The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Dept of Urban Services have
provided their police officers, parking inspectors, and on-road vehicle
inspectors with WAP-enabled mobile phones and PDA's which use the Cable
& Wireless Optus GPRS network to connect to the rego.ACT database system.

Police have always been mobile workers and availability of data instantly
in crucial. rego.ACT recognise that, within 2 years, mobile access will be
indispensable for monile workers. GPRS represents the first step with ACT
police already envisaging further uses for mobile data services.

The system was launched on 1 Aug 2001 to provide real time access to the
database for driver and vehicle details in the ACT as well as NSW and
Victoria. By mid-October 2001, the police are expected to have access to
all Australian vehicles and licenses. The System is used to identify
stolen or written off vehicles on the shpot and replaces the requirement
to radio back to base for information.

The previous systems (TRIPS) was "slow & cubersome, crashed all the time
and only operated about 70% of the time" (ACT statement in Computer World
21 Aug. 2001). GPRS was chosen as a delivery mechanism to address latency
issues involved with CS data over GSM.

Australia has one of the highest car theft rates in the world and by
using the system, police have the potential to curb the stolen vehicle
market in the ACT. The systems enables officers to spend more time on the
beat and less time on administration. ACT police recognise that the
availability of such information "could make a police officer a very
efficient opertor ". (ACT statement in Computerworld 21 Aug 2001)

The key success factors of the systems are seen to include:

* Real time accessw (1-3 seconds response time compared to 30-60
seconds on GSM)
* Very simple user interface the mobile devices have been
accepted well by officers
* Secure access (provided by 128 bit SSL and WTLS)
* Low cost of ownership & adaptability for future technology
* Performance & scalability to deliver fast response times 24/7
with over 99.8% availability

The next stage of the initiative will be to provide officers with Intranet
access of the systems over ACT's government WAN (early 2002). This will
be3 followed by the provision of Internet access for the public to
transact with the government (mid 2002).

The rego.ACT system was developed by Internet Solutions Australia and CSC
and delivered by C&W Optus. It is built on standards written entirely in
Java, using an n-tier enterprise architecture built on open standards
using the J2EE platform. The middle tier uses EJB and the link between
mobile devices and the system is secured using 128- bit WTLS.

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