Telcos to the rescue: Communications amidst disasters
Published on 16 Mar 2006 at 6:38 am.
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Filed under Edong's Dreams, ICT Industry.
There was a story on the Inquirer last Sunday about three field engineers of Smart Communications who turned into instant relief workers during the Leyte landslide rescue operations.
The story was, they were heading for a cellsite for some repairs, checked with a contact whether the roads were still passable despite the storm and found out what had happened at Brgy. St. Bernard. There was a terrible landslide.
The Smart engineers immediately went to the site of the tragedy, and started offering free cellphone calls to disaster victims. Within the day, they set up Smart WiFi and offered access to the Internet for media to report out the news. They even have a story of a victim making a 3G call to a loved one.
It was a touching story (I couldn’t replicate the emotions described in the article). On top of that, it’s a good story where technology addressed communication needs in an emergency situation.
Cellphones debut, cellphones to the rescue
I remember the 1990 earthquake and my hometown, Baguio, was badly hit. We siblings were in Quezon City, our parents were in Baguio. We didn’t have any communications with our parents. By word of mouth, we gathered news that they were fine.
A few days later, we received a call from my parents.
They were using a cellphone!
It was our first time to hear about this thing called a cellphone. In my mind, this was the debut of the cellphone, and what a blessing it was to have that technology back in 1990.
Communications in relief operations as a telco SOP response
The same way offices have fire drills, I think Telcos should begin training themselves to have quick response teams for disasters similar to the Leyte landslide.
Communications is a crucial part of rescue operations. It is also vital to keep victims and relatives of victims in touch.
I say to telcos: Go the extra mile, prepare your personnel, make it a policy to *always* be ready to take part in relief operations.
ka edong
wanted to be a fireman
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