NASHVILLE, TN - Nashville Electric Service, a publicly owned electric utilities provider, has deployed In Motion Technology's end-to-end mobile networking and fleet management solution to improve dispatches, communications, and customer service, according to a company release.

NES installed In Motion's onBoard Mobile Gateways in 146 bucket trucks and supervisory vehicles.  The Gateway turns vehicles into mobile hotspots, providing wireless connectivity to laptops and other devices in and around the vehicle. The Gateway can roam across wireless networks to provide the highest bandwidth and most reliable communications. It is easy to install, maintain and upgrade, and requires no user intervention, according to the company.

The Gateway is GPS-enabled, allowing NES dispatchers to track all vehicles on a single screen and dispatch the closet truck to an outage or service call — a capability that will reduce response times and fuel use, while improving efficiency and customer service. 

In Motion's web-based onBoard Mobility Manager scans and analyzes information from Gateway equipped vehicles to provide NES with real time and historical information about its operations and communications.  If a vehicle leaves its designated service area or exceeds speed limits, dispatchers receive email alerts. NES also used the onBoard Mobility Manager to map all available wireless networks in its service area and select the one with the best coverage. In the future, NES may use the management system to monitor vehicle telemetry and other information from the field in real time, according to the release.

"When we began our search for a new mobile communications technology, we set very demanding specifications," said Vic Hatridge, Nashville's chief information officer. "In Motion Technology's solution integrates seamlessly with our management and dispatch system to track vehicles, while providing high-bandwidth mobile communications over any wireless network.  The solution is helping us improve operations and enhance customer service, and provides a platform on which we can deploy new applications."

Nashville Electric Service serves more than 357,000 residential and business customers across seven counties in north-central Tennessee.