Humanitarian Comms

ITU has signed an important Cooperation Agreement with Singapore-based smartBridges Solutions, a leading provider of wireless broadband equipment, to provide WiMAX and WiFi systems to strengthen ITU’s on-the-ground disaster response capabilities...

 In what is believed to be the world's first m-giving campaign powered by 2-d barcode technology, delegates at this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona are able to donate money to Haitian relief efforts by simply snapping a barcode with their mobile phones...

Clickatell has extended its free SMS services to organisations providing aid to Haiti. The versatility of SMS has made it the communication channel of choice in the aftermath of the recent earthquake, and Clickatell’s move is sure to be welcomed not just by aid workers and residents in Haiti, but by those donating to the numerous charities providing aid to the country...

Andrew has launched what it describes as “the world’s first” location protection server, the GeoLENs Policy Server. Developed in collaboration with operators, it ensures that access to location information is limited to those who are authorised. In fact, one timely scenario where Policy Server would not restrict location information is in emergency situations when public safety workers are attempting to locate users in distress...

While the final death toll from the earthquake on Haiti has yet to be established, it is clear that many of the world’s leading organisations, public and private, have supplied emergency equipment and food and drink on a massive scale. This article by Michael Schwartz looks at the early help given by the telecoms sector...

Customer awareness of broadband technology or rather the lack of it accounts for the Digital Divide in broadband rather than any lack of availability of the relevant technology. The Ovum consultancy makes this claim in its recent report Bridging the broadband divide: challenges and solutions...

Somalia's collapse into civil war in the early 1990s has led to a generation without an education and with none of the safeguards expected under the rule of law in a normally functioning country. Distance learning has come into its own, and so has the African Virtual University. Sidiki Traore, who has been with the AVU for over ten years, tells us how...

How do we ensure access to the internet is a human right enjoyed by everyone? This is one of the critical questions asked by an annual publication that highlights the importance of people's access to Information and Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure - and where and how countries are getting it right or wrong, and what can be done about it.

The Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) has been adopted as ITU Recommendation X.1303 and become the foundation standard for all media public disaster and emergency warning. WMO is hosting a 2-day Workshop on 9-10 December 2008 in Geneva for people responsible for CAP implementation...

Telco operators in China are counting the economic as well as the human cost of the country's recent earthquakes. A financial total of over US$1 billion is almost certain...

Running simultaneously with ITU's relief work in Myanmar, the ITU is deploying satellite terminals in quake-hit China. Some 100 terminals are helping China get communication links back up and running in the Sichuan Province...

Alcatel-Lucent is heavily involved in the efforts to help those suffering from the effects of the Chinese earthquake. The company has 10,000 employees in China with 500 in Chengdu, little more than 100 miles from the epicentre of the quake...

Telecoms facilities in China have not been exempt from the damage inflicted by the recent earthquake. Among the victims is Western China's economic powerhouse, Chengdu.

Controversy has marked the relief efforts in Myanmar's recent cyclone tragedy. One encouraging sign is that ITU satellite terminals are restoring vital communications links. The International Telecommunication Union has deployed 100 satellite terminals to help restore vital communication links in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis which hit Myanmar on May 2 with devastating effect in Yangon and the low-lying Irrawaddy delta region...

The 200,000 fisherman that work on Lake Victoria will soon be using mobile phones to call for help if they get into trouble on the world's second largest inland lake. In an initiative coordinated by the GSMA's Development Fund, mobile networks will be expanded to cover Lake Victoria, Africa's largest lake, fuelling economic and social development of the lakeside communities and potentially reducing the number of fishing-related deaths each year...

The ITU has deployed 25 satellite terminals to help restore vital communication links in the aftermath of severe floods that have inundated low-lying districts across Zambia. A total of 3,418 homes and 44 schools collapsed as a result of heavy rainfall, and ensuing floods have destroyed roads and communication links, hampering the coordination and delivery of assistance...

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), The Vodafone Group Foundation, and the United Nations Foundation announced today a ground-breaking "global partnership for emergency communications". The partnership will increase the effectiveness of the information and communications technology (ICT) response to major emergencies and disasters around the world...

The 2008 International Aid + Trade Event brings together the global humanitarian relief, aid and development community to share knowledge and experience, improve coordination and communication, increase the effectiveness of aid response and humanitarian relief and embrace the challenge of integrated aid and development...

ITU has deployed 25 satellite terminals to help restore vital communication links in the aftermath of severe floods that have affected the eastern and northern regions of Uganda...

Following the devastating earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale that struck Southern Peru on 15 August 2007, ITU deployed 50 satellite terminals to help restore communication links in remote and underserved areas...

"We need a Marshall Plan for ICT infrastructure development in Africa. We have to mobilise the world's human, financial and technical resources to support economic growth, employment and development across Africa... 

Satellite communications, when properly deployed, will always mean an improved global response to disasters. Now the ITU has forged a partnership with satellite-based ICO Global Communications and the Commonwealth Business Council to exploit satellite communications for exactly this purpose...

Recently, ITU and Cameroon ran joint a workshop on strengthening ICT for disaster management. The conclusions included a plea for more of the cross-border co-operation and the waiving of paper-work aspired to at the Tampere Convention...

One of the most important subjects Developing Telecoms reports on regularly is Disaster Management. We were therefore pleasantly surprised to find that the Economist had recently published an article with the above title. Subtitled "You don't have to be big to make a difference" it is reproduced here, to reach a wider audience...

Phones-for-Health is a cutting-edge US$10 million public-private partnership bringing together mobile phone operators, handset manufacturers and technology companies.  

One of our aims at Developing Telecoms is to compile articles on disaster management and emergencies, so that executives in the emerging markets who are tasked either with preparing for such situations or, far worse, having to cope with them, can draw on the experience of others. One internationally respected organisation, the Global VSAT Forum, continues to respond to the industry's call for heightened awareness of disasters.

Slovenia's Masterline has agreed to distribute PacketLight Networks productions and solutions for storage and disaster recovery. Michael Schwartz learnt more from PacketLight CEO Coby Hanoch, and asked him for his views on Slovenia as a place to trade.

GrameenPhone Ltd is working in cooperation with Telemedicine Reference Centre Limited to launch an electronic health information and service known as Healthline...

 

Emerging Markets Communications (EMC) has recently connected an EMC Quick Deployment kit which is now fully operational in Beirut, Lebanon .

Developing Telecoms publishes this release as a part of its comprehensive and long-standing coverage of the theme of disaster management. We do not mean any endorsement or criticism of the products or systems mentioned.

The ITU and Thuraya Satellite Telecommunications Company have concluded an agreement to provide portable satellite terminals to assist countries in disaster mitigation and relief.

Monitoring of tsunami waves and conditions is set to improve as Iridium has won the contract to provide satellite data links for the 31 ocean buoys that the US Department of Commerce National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Data Center is now deplo yi ng.

Nyasha Mutsekwa, a project manager for Oracle, explains how ICT is boosting e-Learning in Africa...