Satellite Firms See Hurricane Relief Progress
Satellite firms Thurs. weighed in on how they're aiding a Gulf region bereft of terrestrial communication options -- most remain submerged -- in what’s likely to be a historic disaster response mobilization. The New Orleans flood, which peaked Wed., could take 30 days to recede, complicating the task of repairing ground-based infrastructure, responders said. Meantime, satellite firms told us, they're providing services from above: telephony to broadband, and imaging to radio to link emergency responders to one other and Katrina survivors with the outside world.
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Satellite telephony remains one of the only dependable voice options in La. and Miss. (CD Sept 1 p6), where BellSouth and wireless carriers are working to get networks up. Mobile Satellite Ventures (MSV) said they've seen traffic jump over 300% for public safety and emergency response users, up again from a 100% rise Mon. Iridium and Globalstar said satphone demand on their systems continues to grow as well. MSV officials said they're serving existing customers of all stripes who have limited terrestrial options, from Cingular, Conoco Phillips and CNN to FEMA, the Miss. National Guard and the Miss. Transportation Dept. The firm is trying to expedite service to new customers who are calling from industries as varied as agriculture and auto manufacturing, most with large plants in the area but no voice service, an MSV official said.
Satellite broadband also is coming to the rescue. AlaWeb Pioneer, an Internet provider for 2 Ala. NRTC electric cooperatives, reported they're setting up WildBlue satellite broadband for businesses that lost Internet connections to the storm. AlaWeb co-founder Paul Spears said he dispatched a WildBlue installer to Great Southern Wood, a large lumber firm with a plant near Mobile, Ala. “Mobile wasn’t hit nearly as hard as Biloxi, because they still had utilities available. But the Internet was down at the Great Southern Wood plant, and they need to get wood moving for the rebuilding project. People are going to need lumber,” said Spears.
Great Southern Wood said it was losing a million dollars a day in sales without Internet access, Spears said: “Their sales and ordering were down. When our installer left there last night, they were so appreciative,” said Spears: “They had a lot of other things to work on, but getting online was first. The next thing was to get the generators back up so they could pump fuel into their trucks.” Another satellite broadband provider, Hughes Network System’s DirecWay, said it has volunteered equipment for FEMA, and is awaiting word.
Key to the rebuild: satellite imagery. FEMA uses the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) for geospatial information, including satellite imagery, to help FEMA gauge damage and focus resources. “The first cloud-free satellite image we had of downtown New Orleans went to FEMA on Tues.,” the spokesman said. NGA is analyzing pre- and post-hurricane images from all 3 commercial satellite imagery providers -- Orbimage, DigitalGlobe and Space Imaging -- plus govt. satellites, he said. NGA also is helping commercial satellite imagery companies prioritize photographic efforts, said a Space Imaging spokesman. “It’s important that relief agencies and everybody else involved in repairs are using a common, consistent and updated platform to prioritize and for staging information,” the spokesman said: “We're aggressively shooting the area.”
An Intelsat spokesman said they're supporting the Red Cross, FEMA, the National Guard and the Defense Dept. with FSS capacity, providing extra transponder space for rescue worker communications and victim phone calls. The Maritime Telecom Network and Cingular Wireless are also utilizing Intelsat’s system, the spokesman said. FSS operators SES Americom and PanAmSat didn’t return calls by deadline.
An EchoStar spokesman it’s too early to reconnect thousands without service. “But we have mobilized hundreds of technicians,” the spokesman said: “People have higher priorities than TV service right now, but we also understand that it’s important for people to stay connected with what’s going on.” The spokesman said EchoStar is trying to set up TV service free of charge in emergency shelters as they pop up: “Right now we're waiting for some indication from government officials that we're okay to go into area and help out. But it could be a while.”
XM and Sirius said their operations remain largely unaffected, and that they're still broadcasting weather and news for listeners. “Many of the local radio stations are off the air because there’s no power,” making satellite radio a unique information source, an XM spokesman said: “They're listening to emergency broadcasts, news and the weather channel. This is one of the few ways to get information into these local areas right now because of all the devastation there.” A Sirius spokesman said the firm was broadcasting regular updates for hurricane victims 24/7 on its emergency broadcast channel, 184. Now the channel is directing listeners to CNN or Fox for regular news updates, he said. Sirius’s satellite configuration doesn’t need terrestrial repeaters, the spokesman said. The XM spokesman said the firm has some New Orleans-area terrestrial repeaters, but customers there can get a signal without them.