R.I. leads wireless adoption in vendor study

Rhode Island is far and away the most advanced state government in terms of 802.11 adoption, according to a new study by CDW-Government. The study broke all states into Lead Investors, Early Investors, Early Majority and other states. Rhode Island was the only state to be classified as a lead investor.

The study is really only based on CDW-G sales data, so it's hardly a comprehensive picture, but to the degree that the company's sales are representative of the industry it gives some indication. States were ranked on a curve and assigned an index number. North Carolina, the 22nd ranked state, had an index score of just about 100. By comparison, Rhode Island's score was 246.82. The No. 2 state was Ohio with 181.97.

Lead investors, according to CDW-G, are tolerant of the risk and capable of managing it, have legislative and/or political support for IT agenda, have association or institutional support for IT education, prioritize IT security expenditures across multiple product categories.

"Investment in wireless technologies is an important step in driving improved collaboration and information sharing while reducing networking costs for state and local government agencies," said Alan Weiss, CDW-G director of public sector sales, state and local government, in a press release. "At this point, however, state and local government leaders do not have a unified framework for assessing wireless technology investments across different states and multiple levels of government."