The Bloomberg administration is on the verge of creating a wireless network that will allow first responders to download fingerprints, mug shots, criminal histories, license plate information, and building floor plans via high-speed connections while en route to emergencies.

The Department of Information Technology & Telecommunications has requested proposals from companies that want to build the network, and is now in final negotiations with two firms that are expected to test-run separate systems.

Sources close to the process told The New York Sun that the two finalists for the pilot program are cellular giant Motorola Incorporated and defense contractor Northrop Grumman Corporation, which has a technology arm.

The test networks are expected to be up and running in a few months barring any problems in negotiations, a spokesman for DoITT, Jonathan Werbell, confirmed to the Sun. Some equipment is already being set up at locations in Lower Manhattan, the pilot area.

The commissioner of DoITT, Gino Menchini, would not comment on the pilot program or discuss details of the possible contracts, but he issued a statement over the weekend about the networks.

“The piloting and implementation of a new high speed mobile wireless network will connect our first responders and other mobile city employees to critical systems and information,” Mr. Menchini said.

The city will test each network for 12 weeks and then decide which company, if either, it wants to use for a larger “public safety network” that would include police, fire, and emergency workers in all five boroughs. The estimated cost of the pilot program has not been disclosed, but the price of the final network is expected to be several hundred million dollars.

Communication breakdowns during the World Trade Center attacks in 2001 highlighted just how crucial it is to have solid communication networks. While the new network will have voiceover capability, its main function will be providing high-speed image downloads and video footage.

In March 2004, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit that accused the city and Motorola of providing faulty radios to firefighters who died on September 11, 2001. The equipment for this project – which uses transmitters mounted to traffic lights, on building tops, and at other locations – is much more advanced than radio technology.

The concept of a wireless “public safety network” for emergency responders is not new. Several smaller cities are already building networks, and some cities, such as Philadelphia, are building networks for both emergency and civilian use. In fact, some in New York say the city’s network should also include high-speed access for the public.

Industry insiders say going wireless will improve the way emergencies are handled and could drive down response times. Firefighters, for example, will no longer need to get information about a building before they leave the station; they will be able to get it while en route to the fire.

“Public safety officers have a lot of applications, computer applications, that they can run on their desks but that they can’t run out in the field because of a lack of bandwidth,” the senior director of marketing at a technology company called Tropos, Bert Williams, said during a phone interview.

Mr. Williams said Tropos, which sells equipment to telecommunications companies that build wireless networks, has seen police officers save time by filing reports from the field, rather than going back to their precincts.

“You can have that officer out on the beat two more hours a day,” he said. “Even if they’re not doing anything more than sitting in their car typing, they are actually deterring crime – nobody wants to commit a crime when they see a cop car.”

A business executive, Andrew Rasiej, who ran for public advocate last year on a platform centered on the city’s need for a Wi-Fi network, said a wireless network will improve security and increase efficiency. “A strong, redundant communications network is the best form of security,” he said yesterday. “The city has looked for years to create inter-operability between the police and fire departments. This network will provide the foundation for seamless communications in the event of an emergency.”

Mr. Rasiej said the “mesh network” involved in these types of projects acts as a web that allows the system to function even if one router is knocked out. He also pointed out that the transmitters used are solar powered, so they continue to function in the event of a blackout.

The network, he said, will create a foundation for communication with all kinds of different devices, like BlackBerries, laptops, and other handheld devices. “This is a great first step. Hopefully this will spur the city to look at the public use of wireless,” Mr. Rasiej said.

A City Council member, Gale Brewer, who has for the past few years been chairwoman of the City Council’s Technology in Government Committee, also said it is “positive” that the city is moving forward on the network, but added that she wants to find a way for the public to use the system while keeping the firewalls in place.

DoITT issued its 95-page Request for Proposals in March 2004 and originally planned to start the pilot program late in 2004, but moved the date back several times. In its request, the agency said it expects to sign a five-year contract with two five-year renewal options with whichever company it selects to build the citywide network. It was unclear how many companies bid on the project, but in 2004 the Daily News reported that 150 were interested. The paper named Sprint, Nextel, Verizon Wireless, and others as companies that wanted to throw their hats in the ring.

In addition to high-speed image, video, and information downloading, the city also plans to use the network to create an “automatic vehicle location system” that would be able to track police squad cars or other emergency vehicles and to transmit patient data to hospitals. The network will also include the infrastructure to include real-time wireless control of traffic signals; continual monitoring for biological, nuclear and chemical agents, and monitoring of the water supply.

Tropos’s Mr. Williams said many in the industry have been anxiously awaiting New York’s wireless system.

“Clearly with anything that New York does, it’s going to be the largest of its kind in terms of the number of users and the population covered,” he said. “That’s going to make it just an inherently interesting system for everybody else in the industry to follow.”