Satellite Said Under-Utilized in Disaster Recovery

Satcom “is a rolling solution, looking for problems to solve,” said Tom Eaton, exec.-vp. of PanAmSat & pres. of PanAmSat govt. arm G2 Satellite Solutions: “When we're needed, everybody rushes to the site ready to help, but without a personal contact or a central command center you don’t even know if you're going to the right place.” In Katrina-like circumstances, manmade or natural, “until somebody steps up to the plate and says ‘Here’s where we need you and here’s what you can do,’ people are running down there without direction. And it’s a shame, because there’s so much capability available that doesn’t get used because of lack of coordination,” Eaton said.

Homeland security “hasn’t adequately addressed satcom, because it’s a question of resources and priorities,” said Tim Wickham, senior associate at consulting firm DFI International. Part of the problem is that FEMA and DHS have in-house communication systems in warehouses and vans ready to go, “but there aren’t enough of them, and the agencies don’t really have a plan for a disaster as large as Katrina where you need to reconstitute an entire network. And they still don’t have a clear plan after all this,” Wickham said.

“We're not all bumping into each other down there,” said Kirby Farrell, exec. vp. of Segovia, a managed networks service provider that set up satellite IP voice and data systems after Katrina. “The Gulf Coast situation is similar to Iraq,” Farrell said: “You'll see lots of companies saying they're doing business over there, and we all are because there was no communications infrastructure left in the entire country. There is plenty of business to go around because you have hundreds of square miles of areas that now have no working communication. We could be putting in hundreds of systems.” Segovia has 40 systems in Miss. and La., he said.

Segovia set up a communication center for police and fire departments. in Hancock County, Miss., Farrell said: “And what we did there is really going to be one of our focuses for 2006.” Some emergency elements were in place there, but more work is needed, he said. For example, the county set up a system for enabling emergency radio interoperability after Katrina. Trailer-mounted radio towers bridge frequencies, so responders on different wavelengths can communicate with each other. But the trailers aren’t networked to the outside world. “When they built these things, the world didn’t work off of the Internet like they do now,” Farrell said: “The purpose is to enable radio communication, but there’s no focus on making sure they've got high speed broadband and telephone services.”

Once emergency responders’ radios are working, which is top priority, the challenge becomes Internet access and phone service, said Kirby. “Command centers that are supposed to be a primary source of information to people don’t have access to the outside world, and don’t have info to give. That’s especially dangerous when people are trying to track storms and figure out what’s going on,” he said: “You could actually see the tension level in the trailer lower when we connected them to the outside world. Then they could participate in conference calls with federal agencies.” And people often forget that troops on the ground in storm zones aren’t in contact with their own families, said a spokesman for Stratos, another satellite voice and data network services provider: “Many of the troops in the La. National Guard had lost their own homes and their families were elsewhere. The folks who are responding also need a way to respond. We call it ‘crew calling’ in the maritime industry.”

Industry analysts highlighted 2 elements key to effective satcom procurement by civil agencies: equipment and air time. Contrary to general belief that the fixed satellite services (FSS) industry bathes in transponder overcapacity, there “actually isn’t a whole lot of excess capacity over the continental U.S.,” said David Cavossa, exec. dir. of the Satellite Industry Assn. (SIA): “Which is exactly why the Dept. of Homeland Security and company need to think about satellite capacity in advance. If they purchase capacity now, it will be available when they need it and satellite operators won’t be scrambling.”

Cavossa said he doesn’t know of any circumstances during or after Hurricane Katrina in which FSS operators had to turn customers away: “It wasn’t impossible, but they were doing it at the last minute.” To address satellite procurement by civil agencies and first responders at the state and local levels, SIA is expanding efforts by its govt. services working group, which previously focused on DoD, Cavossa said: “We're transferring what we've been talking to the DoD about for 2 years -- which means buying smarter, long term and in bulk, plus pre-positioning and deploying capacity and equipment for times of crisis. We want to make sure there are people thinking about this.”

Equipment procurement also can be “a mess,” said Eaton: “It isn’t a question of technology or availability, it’s bureaucracy and getting rid of it. The problem is there are no clear-cut coordination points for the commercial community to jump in and help.” For example, satcom technicians often aren’t credentialed to enter disaster areas, and can’t get in to help, he said: “We're looking for coordinated deployment. We want to use the assets we have to help people out. Our vision is that every community should have a satcom terminal ready to deploy at a moment’s notice.” Eaton urged a mobile satcom terminal in each town’s fire station: “When something catastrophic happens, you open it up and at least you can immediately start providing voice connectivity.” After 9/11, the N.Y.C. fire dept. bought Inmarsat mobile satcom gear through Stratos, said the Stratos spokesman.

“The equipment is an easy fix if there’s money,” said Wickham, speaking of satellite phones: “But it needs to be refreshed, and that’s another problem for government. FEMA’s model is to buy something and put it in a warehouse until they need it.” A creative business model might have the govt. contract to a company that leases equipment, swapping it out every 18-24 months, said Wickham: “That’s going to cost the government more, but at least they won’t end up with something that’s five years old.” Another challenge for Capitol Hill is to address communications problems without oversimplifying them, said Farrell: “It’s easy to oversimplify some of this stuff. People need to understand what it is they're trying to solve when they're putting the money on the line.”

The govt. must “take a hard look at business models and partnering with industry so they can have what they need, when they need it,” said Wickham. An upcoming GSA competition, the Satellite Services Program II (Satcom 2) could be a good vehicle for agencies like FEMA to contract for more, and more creative, satcom, Wickham said: “It’s a new competition, and they haven’t exactly said what they want.” But some are lobbying GSA to ensure the RFP is flexible enough to meet such needs as those Katrina illustrated, he said. According to the GSA, the program will serve as the primary replacement vehicle for existing GSA Satellite Services contracts for fixed, mobile and broadcast satellite solutions for all federal agencies.

Federal money will fix emergency communications systems, but it'll be spent at the local and regional level, industry members said. Satellite service providers like Segovia, that usually target military satcom operations like those in Iraq and Afghanistan, said their services were needed so badly post-Katrina they're adjusting their sights to take in the domestic security market -- a shift that eventually could recast the federal approach to satcom.

“We've got to change the way we go after that market,” said Farrell: “You really have to after it at a federal level, but money is being spent by states and regions… We're already changing our schedule for next year to make sure we're participating in state and regional shows.” Stratos also will be widening the set of customers it pursues for satellite services, said the spokesman: “We think we'll see more agencies like FEMA coming to us, plus state and local govts. The federal govt. and the U.S. military will continue to be our primary customers for deployments, but domestically we see an expanding market for emergency response, disaster recovery, and redundant solutions that are quickly deployable.”