Communications Industry Provides Services to Relief Workers

Terrestrial wireline and wireless services often are overloaded or destroyed in such disasters. In addition, inadequate bandwidth often impedes disaster relief, recovery missions and communications needs for tens of thousands of aid workers, journalists and govt. officials, the Satellite Industry Assn. said Fri. SIA Exec. Dir. David Cavossa said member companies are well prepared to provide instant telecommunications infrastructure in affected areas. Companies have donated satellite equipment, teleport services, commercial satellite imagery and free satellite capacity across the region.

Handheld satellite phones have helped victims contact family members around the world, and satellite terminals and antennas have been rushed to the region to set up wireless Internet services to speed medical information and organize supplies for aid workers, SIA said. Global positioning system (GPS) equipment is being used to map the location of refugee camps and aid stations, while satellite imagery is being used to establish priorities for emergency crews and the locations where supplies and personnel are needed.

Intelsat estimates it will donate $2-$5 million worth of satellite capacity and is working to provide support services to some telecommunications carriers in the region, a spokeswoman said. The company is matching every dollar that its employees donate to the relief effort. About $25,000 has been contributed and donations are still coming in, she said. A spokeswoman for SES Americom said her company instituted such a donation-matching campaign. SES has committed to significant donations to various relief organizations. SES Americom donated $10,000 to the Red Cross and SES Global/SES Astra donated nearly $20,000 to UNICEF. PanAmSat offered its satellite services to support NBC’s tsunami telethons on Jan. 5 and 15.

Satellites’ importance to disaster relief is expected to increase, SIA said. The sensor buoys that measure ocean changes rely on satellites to disseminate seismic data and emergency alerts to monitoring stations around the world. “In the future, the fully global tsunami detection and warning capability called for by world leaders will rely on satellites as a critical piece of the information link,” Cavossa said.

Meanwhile, the tsunami swept away much of the progress the region had made in telecommunications, industry officials agreed. Before the tidal wave, Indonesia was well on its way to becoming a “hot market” for satellites, said David Hartshorn, secy. general for the Global VSAT Forum (GVF). Some time ago, the govt. spurred competition by deregulating the cellular sector; as companies searched for new subscribers outside of urban areas, satellites played a critical role in providing services to rural users in the absence of fiber networks, he said. This hybrid solution to connectivity is perhaps more relevant after the wave than before, he said.

The tsunami’s disruption of communications services underscored GVF’s ongoing work with govts. and international organizations to promote more efficient regulatory and policy approaches. “One of first things that became apparent after the wave was that the routine regulatory conditions applied to the satellite industry in Indonesia were not advantageous in facilitating rapid rollout of services,” Hartshorn said: “Licensing, most notably, can be time consuming and expensive and in some cases prohibitive.”

The past 7 years, advocacy groups like GVF have urged the UN to ratify the Tampere Convention, which promotes disaster response by telecommunication service providers in coordination with relief agencies. The convention has just received the minimum number of signatures from UN countries for ratification. That the new signatures were collected right before the tsunami was serendipitous, he said: “We've been expecting ratification for the past month or so.”

The convention would temporarily bypass regulatory barriers to satellite, fiber or mobile services in a natural disaster to hasten relief efforts. Companies and aid organizations would work jointly with local govts. on which services would be rolled out and for how long. According to Hartshorn, once temporary networks are in place, the convention leaves the door open for negotiating a permanent presence in a country. “The countries who are typically hardest hit and have the most difficult time recovering are in the developing world,” he said: “They also have the most onerous regulatory provisions with regard to satellite services.”

Hartshorn called the convention “an amazingly important potential catalyst as well as a lifesaver.” Invoking the convention during a time of need could not only expedite recovery efforts but could also change the way satellite services are regulated -- or in this case deregulated -- in a country.

Telecom Industry Helps Support Tsunami Relief Efforts

MCI said it provided several thousand prepaid calling cards for survivors, relief workers and medical personnel in the affected region and made its communications equipment available for organizations that support the relief efforts as needed. It made an initial financial contribution of $100,000 -- $50,000 to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and $50,000 to the Red Cross. The company, more than 1,000 of whose 41,000 employees and many of whose customers are in the Asia-Pacific region, said it would also match employee financial contributions, to $500,000. The funds will be donated to UNICEF, the Red Cross, Sri Lanka’s President’s Fund for Disaster Relief, India’s Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund, Thailand’s Prime Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund and Indonesia Red Cross Society, MCI said.

AT&T donated $100,000 to the American Red Cross International Response Fund. It said it would also match AT&T employee contributions of $25 or more to the International Response Fund to $100,000. Sprint has donated $50,000 to the Red Cross and said it would match employee contributions to that organization or UNICEF, to $50,000.

Cingular said it allowed its customers to use text messaging for free to make contributions to help victims of tsunamis. The company sent free text messages to many of its customers inviting them to donate $1.99 or $.99 to one of 3 organizations: The International Fund of the American Red Cross, UNICEF or the Save the Children Fund. The charge will appear on the customer’s next bill, it said. Cingular also said it would donate up to $2 million to disaster relief efforts. It said it would match up to $1 million in employee contributions to the 3 charity organizations. “In the coming days and weeks, Cingular will look at other forms of assistance we might provide,” said Cingular CEO Stan Sigman.

T-Mobile USA said it would donate all proceeds of its Get More, Give More wireless device recycling program to the American Red Cross for devices donated through March 31. It also said it would match 100% employee donations to tsunami relief efforts through Feb. 28, to $500,000. For every dollar contributed by an employee to any relief agency, T-Mobile said it would donate one to the Red Cross’s International Response Fund. In addition, Deutsche Telekom is donating $1.3 million to aid organization that support the relief efforts.

Verizon said it has collected more than $2 million for the disaster relief program it launched in response to the tsunami. The company had urged its employees to donate money to the American Red Cross and the UNICEF and said it would match employee contributions 2-to-1 to support tsunami disaster relief efforts by those 2 organizations through Jan. 31. It said employees had made donations of $50-$2,500.

BellSouth said it donated $200,000 to the American Red Cross International Response Fund to help the victims and said it would match employee contributions up to $1 million. Many telecom companies, including AT&T, SBC, Qwest, Verizon and Verizon Wireless, also provided links on their websites to the American Red Cross and other international charity groups that collect donations to provide relief to the victims. They urged customers and employees to make contributions.

SBC said it would provide a $1 million grant to the American Red Cross Annual Disaster Giving Program, giving $200,000 each year for 5 years. It said the first year funding would be used for the American Red Cross International Response Fund to aid tsunami relief. The company also said it would provide up to $2 million to assist tsunami relief in the affected areas in south Asia and to bolster future disaster relief needs in the U.S. It said it would match contributions by its full-time employees and eligible retirees, up to $1 million. The funds raised by this program will be directed, based on employee designation, to the American Red Cross, United Way International, UNICEF, Save the Children, OXFAM America and AmeriCares, SBC said.

A Qwest spokesman said the company had devoted “a big part of our website to providing a secure link to charity websites, including the Red Cross, to make it very easy for people to go and donate money… We have an ongoing relationship with the Red Cross.” Qwest plans to determine the total amount of donations made “in the coming weeks.”

Amazon.com and Yahoo.com donated $14.8 million and $5.6 million, respectively, to the American Red Cross. Other big donations came from Walt Disney Co. ($1 million), Qualcomm ($1 million), Viacom ($1 million), Avaya ($750,000), Cisco ($250,000), AOL ($200,000), SBC ($200,000), AT&T ($100,000), Intel ($100,000) and Time Warner ($100,000), according to the Red Cross list. The list includes philanthropic donations only and doesn’t mention companies that support Red Cross efforts through employee or customer giving programs. The American Red Cross is one of the largest international charity groups involved in the tsunami relief efforts.