Satellite Communications Role in Disaster Response, Recovery Expected to Get Boost
NEW YORK -- Satellite communications are expected to play a role in the changing approach to disaster and emergency situations, satellite industry executives said Wednesday at the Content and Communications World SATCON conference in New York. The performance of the satellite industry during Superstorm Sandy “provides us with an acid test of how we're doing,” said David Hartshorn, Global VSAT Forum secretary general. The Red Cross workers were moving their sites about every two days to where they could be of more help, said Justin Luczyk, a Tactical SATCOM Networks director for ViaSat. Satellite technology could enable them to “bring their communications further and further into the disaster area,” which was critically important, he said.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
Hughes Network Systems is working with federal, state and local agencies to take advantage of satellite communications for emergency response, said Tony Bardo, government markets assistant vice president at Hughes. Hughes tries to advocate for preparedness, response and recovery using satellite communications, he said. There’s a perception that using satellite communications is too expensive, he said. Agencies are buying duplicate, redundant terrestrial networks, he added: “They'd save money and have better resiliency if they dispensed with the second terrestrial network and established a satellite backup."
Satellite communication has always been a critical backbone when a disaster strikes and the terrestrial network is “knocked out or overloaded,” said Luczyk. High-throughput satellites “allow us to do much more than ever with satellite,” he said. The broadcast industry has used satcom as its “workhorse,” he said. It has taken advantage of the rapid setup, higher speeds and small terminals of satellite communications, he said. “However, we don’t see that same kind of application translate to disaster response in the first responder area."
Massachusetts Task Force 1, an urban search and rescue team, has deployed satellite communications, including mobile satellite, satellite phones and VSATs, said Chad Council, its technical information specialist. The “biggest plus” for satellite phones is portability, he said. But there are some downsides to some of the technologies, he said. “The down side [to satphones] is saturation. … Everybody else is using these, too and it’s hard to get a line or a call in.” With VSAT there are solid communications going in any format one needs, he said. But “you need a footprint that has a view of the sky,” he said. “The smartphone has become so ubiquitous that it really has started affecting how first responders perform.” The use of non-cellular, non-data devices is always part of the fallback plan but it doesn’t get exercised as often as it probably should, he said.
The public safety network, FirstNet, proposed by NTIA, could provide an opportunity for satellite communications to further deploy, said Luczyk and Bardo. There’s a role for satellite communications in the rollout of FirstNet, said Bardo. It’s focused on radio communications, “but we have the ground infrastructure that supports this,” he said. Satellite as a resiliency component for FirstNet can be essential and “it can be factored into the design,” he added. FirstNet looks like an interesting opportunity, said Luczyk. ViaSat is watching the proceeding closely to learn more about the specifics, he said.