Improving the safety of students has always been a top priority for the concerned school authorities. AT&T (News - Alert) has launched a mobile resource management (MRM) solution that aims at improving student safety, increasing productivity and reducing costs of operation. The MRM solution is based on RFID and GPS technologies and uses AT&T’s wireless network and specialized applications.

The advantages of AT&T’s RFID based application include asset tracking, daily attendance tracking, school visitor tracking and disaster response.

The RFID solution helps in tracking students, school buses and school equipment. Students would be given an RFID enabled ID badge that would help authorities identify absenteeism, ensure student’s safety during their commute to and from the school and also guarantee that no student is left behind in school during any evacuation procedure. It also prevents visitors from entering unauthorized areas.

AT&T’s new offering also helps in monitoring school buses, regulate the bus speed and also route the buses as efficiently as possible. This would help in providing a safe commute for the school children and also reduce costs by improving the efficiency.

Another significant advantage lies in tracking school equipment like computers, lab equipment etc.

The GPS based mobile resource management system transmits information like location over AT&T’s wireless network to a website which can be accessed by authorized personnel to gain insight into the data.

"Our RFID and MRM services help K - 12 institutions rapidly deploy end-to-end solutions without significant capital investment," said Ann Rotatori, vice president of Business Marketing for AT&T, in a press release. "For the first time, school districts can now turn to a network services provider for all of their RFID and MRM needs, and that enables them to save money, make the most of their assets and resources and enhance student safety."

According to In-Stat (News - Alert), the U.S. market for RFID and GPS-based services is about $650 million annually, with projections to grow by 24 percent annually to $1.5 billion by 2010.

AT&T would design, deploy, and manage the mobile devices and applications, the network, and data centers, in addition to the infrastructure that includes RFID readers, tags, data-collection servers, LANs, wireless LANs, firewalls, and routers.

AT&T Inc. with its Global Headquarters at San Antonio, Texas, is the largest communications holding company in the United States and worldwide, by revenue. Operating globally under the AT&T brand, AT&T is recognized as the leading worldwide provider of IP-based communications services to businesses and the leading U.S. provider of wireless, high speed Internet access, local and long distance voice, and directory publishing and advertising services. For more information on AT&T please go to www.att.com.

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Radhika Raghunath is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.

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