Humanitarian Comms

Vodafone has formed two partnerships that will use mobile technology to increase childhood vaccination levels in sub-Saharan Africa. This will support the global goal to vaccinate an additional quarter of a billion children and avert four million deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases by 2015...

Remote regions of Niger that were previously underserved by any form of telecommunications services will soon have access to mobile connectivity, following the completion of the first phase of a remote network rollout...

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have launched a new partnership called the ‘m-Health’ Initiative to use mobile technology, in particular text messaging and apps, to help combat non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular diseases and chronic respiratory diseases...

Bharti Airtel has announced a partnership with Sproxil to combat the counterfeit drug market in Africa.

Information Technology (IT) has become intrinsic to the day-to-day operations of modern businesses, and enterprises in the healthcare sector are no exception...

The GSMA has revealed that mobile operators are driving significant value for the healthcare industry by improving access, reach and quality to care across the entire patient pathway...

New statistics unveiled by a major broadband analyst have revealed that while many emerging markets are showing major growth, other have struggled to meet expectations. Comparing numbers from three years ago with current reports, Point Topic has released its results showing which emerging markets have weathered the broadband ‘crunch’...

The Internet Society has published the results of a study that demonstrates the far-reaching economic and societal benefits of establishing Internet Exchange Points (or IXPs) in emerging markets...

In a statement which stunned listening analysts and journalists alike, ITU Secretary General Dr Hamadoun Touré announced the end of the Arab Spring during a round table at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. According to Touré the end will officially come at the ITU Connect Arab States Summit, due to take place in Doha on March 5-7 2012...

A new communications service for disaster relief has been successfully deployed in full operational field service for the first time...

The social, economic and environmental benefits of ICT are the subject of Ericsson and Arthur D. Little’s Networked Society Index, which ranks 25 of the world's largest cities according to their ability to implement ICTs to this end. Several BRIC cities are faring well, with Shanghai and Beijing ranking in the top 10...

Mobile health services will soon be made available in large sections of rural Africa following the announcement of an agreement between healthcare firm Sanlam Health and systems integrator GlobeTOM...

A new eHealth initiative has been piloted in Kenya. The Def Aid Mobile Hearing Clinic, situated in Nairobi’s Kawangware slum, has implemented Cisco’s care-at-a distance technology in conjunction with Deaf Aid and Safaricom, with support from Nairobi’s Menelik Hospital...

The findings of a new research programme intended to measure the impact of mobile communications on the lives and prosperity of farming communities in some of the world's poorest countries have been announced...

The world's newest country, South Sudan, has joined ITU to become the Union's 193rd Member State...

An SMS-based health awareness campaign underway in India has received a new participant, the diversified health care benefits company Aetna...

Disaster relief efforts through South and Southeast Asia will be augmented by a new partnership between Ericsson and Singapore Telecommunications Ltd (SingTel)...

Egypt’s Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation has entered into a new Cooperation Protocol with Vodafone Egypt to provide agricultural guidance services via mobile. The initiative will also launch a call centre for Egyptian farmers...

With more than 42 million refugees in the world, many affected by political conflict and natural disasters, the added desperation of being separated from their family and friends without feasible means of tracing them can only compound their suffering...

South Africa’s Deputy Communications Minister Obed Bapela has called for the widespread adoption of mobile health services across the country...

Governments around the world need to rapidly formulate and implement national multi-sectoral broadband plans – or risk being seriously disadvantaged in today’s increasingly high-speed digital environment, according to a new report from the Broadband Commission for Digital Development...

The Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) has completed a study to help improve the use of mobile telephony for international development...

Bhutan’s population will soon have access to real time healthcare services via a partnership between the Royal Government of Bhutan, Regal Information Technology and Orange Business Services...

The ITU has announced the launch of a new digital literacy partnership with Philippines-based NGO telecentre.org Foundation that over the next 18 months will train one million unskilled women to use computers and modern information and communication technology (ICT) applications to improve their livelihoods...

On International Women’s Day, the GSMA urges all members of the mobile industry, the international development community and the public to support women’s freedom to connect by signing the GSMA mWomen Charter...

ITU has dispatched thirty broadband satellite terminals to Haiti as the country prepares for hurricane Tomas...

ITU has deployed 100 broadband satellite terminals in the flood-affected districts of Pakistan. In the aftermath of the disaster, ITU’s emergency telecommunications team has been working closely with the Pakistan administration to restore vital communication links. The satellite terminals are being deployed to restore communications and provide a platform from which telemedicine applications/services will be provided in remote areas that remain difficult to access and where medical attention is a priority in the aftermath of the disaster...

ITU has deployed a hybrid of 40 broadband satellite terminals in an effort to restore vital communication links in the aftermath of a tsunami triggered by a 7.7-magnitude earthquake and a volcanic eruption that hit the Indonesian archipelago in two separate incidents...

A Telecom Advisory Services (TAS) report delivered in conjunction with the GSMA has revealed how mobile sector-specific taxation is impacting on the development and deployment of Mobile Broadband in developing countries...

The ITU is leading an internation effort to speed up reconstruction of Haiti’s crucial telecommunications and ICT infrastructure destroyed in the earthquake of 12 January this year...

SevenHills Health City near Mumbai is now India's first paperless hospital, helped by 802.11n Wi-Fi from Ruckus Wireless. The new network will support a wide range of critical-care applications within a three-million square-foot “health city” spanning 17 acres...

For a whole week, air travel in Europe was paralysed by the effects of volcanic ash belched into the atmosphere by a volcano on Iceland. There had been more disruption since the tragedy of 9/11. While, in one case, the USA struggled to bring 40,000 of its citizens home, the telecoms sector has been trying to make the best of a particularly challenging and difficult situation...

New standards have been adopted by the ITU to enhance the quality of satellite communications during emergencies. All aspects, from early warning through rapid response to relief operations are covered...