Benefits of Satellite Communications Continue to Be Realized During Emergency Situations
NEW YORK -- Better communications between satellite companies and emergency response management teams is needed to improve how satellite communications are used to aid in emergency recovery, said Dwight Hunsicker, Globecomm vice president-government business development. Globecomm was involved in recovery operations after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Hurricane Katrina and the flooding this year in Colorado, he said Wednesday at SATCON in New York. Globecomm deployed equipment to provide communications because the primary infrastructure was flooded out, he said.
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In the aftermath of emergency situations, the demand for bandwidth and time shifts, Hunsicker said. The first people on the ground in a rescue effort typically have Iridium handsets, Inmarsat broadband global area network terminals and basic voice communications with limited data capabilities, he said. The humanitarian phase brings additional resources, which requires increased information and bandwidth needs, he said. The recovery phase requires more complex logistics, “more information, more need for voice communications, data communications and video, which all impact bandwidth performance,” Hunsicker added.
The response to recovery and disaster is a shared effort among residents, businesses and disaster response teams, said Steve Birnbaum, chairman of the Humanitarian Assistance & Disaster Response Programs for the Global VSAT Forum. GVF is engaged in an effort in cross-industry collaboration to implement disaster response and recovery, he said.
Most of the barriers for satellite companies aren’t technical, Hunsicker said. The challenges seem to be more logistically focused, administrative and regulatory, he said. Cost of bandwidth and equipment are an issue, including “having the resources to procure the bandwidth needed to operate those devices,” he said.
In emergencies, the first bit of information people want is to know the whereabouts of family members, said Christian Clark of the United Nations, whose office coordinates emergency responses with nongovernmental organizations. “The best way to get that information to them is to allow them to have access to information where they can search” for loved ones, he said. The U.N. is looking to partner with cellphone companies and satellite technology companies on disaster recovery efforts, he said. The U.N. has reached a point where it, the private sector, government and individuals “are as effective in a natural disaster as anybody,” he said.
Satellite companies and emergency managers must speak the same language, said Keith Robertory, manager of disaster technology for the American Red Cross. “As long as they continue to talk in full color brochures to each other and [in] jargon, they're not going to get it.” Emergency managers need honesty from the satellite community and the satellite community must identify when the connectivity won’t work, he said. “If I have proper expectations of when your system works and when it doesn’t, I can better use it and achieve a higher success rate.”