Monday, April 25, 2011

AT&T remote mobile zone - excellent for BCM/disaster areas

Source: AT&T Website
Just came across the service offering from AT&T for disaster stricken/emergency areas. Typically used by first responders/government entities the Mobile Zone is packed in a suitcase size pack and can offer excellent features/services. In summary,

* Will work with all AT&T phones
* Instant on
* Up to 28 concurrent users
* Easy to setup and use

This part of the world (SEA/ASEAN) we see lot of disasters be it volcanic eruptions, tsunami, floods or even forest fires. Most of the times the first job of Mobile engineers is to establish communications with central office.

During the recent disasters in Thailand, the BCM program became a joke and the operators realized their BCP is just to use alternate/competitor network. So Operator-A is keeping Operator-B handsets/SIM cards and vice-versa. Then when the engineers went to disaster area, they realized almost all the networks/base-stations are dead. To establish the comm links they took precious 40 hours. Now I know singtel is working with Ericsson to establish a United Nations Crisis response or disaster response center.

But to help SME's or other gov agencies they can work within the group to offer similar services and I am sure they will find new businesses and revenue. At the same time they can add +1 to their corporate social responsibility.




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