struck Southern Peru on 15 August 2007, killing more
than 500 people and injuring as well as displacing thousands more, ITU deployed
50 satellite terminals to help restore vital communication links in remote and
underserved areas. These links are critical in coordinating rescue and relief
operations.
According to Ms Cayetana Aljovin, Vice-Minister for Communications of Peru,
the equipment is being deployed in areas where telecommunications are not
available. But these are most needed to facilitate emergency teams as well as
government organizations in establishing communications to coordinate their
work. "We take very seriously the role of telecommunications in mitigating
disasters," said Mr Sami Al Basheer Al Morshid, Director of ITU’s
Telecommunication Development Bureau. "Whenever a country is affected by a
disaster, we quickly mobilize and dispatch transportable telecommunications
resources that can be used for general communications by government authorities
and to provide e-services such as telemedicine that are crucial for saving human
lives. We hope that this contribution will go a long way towards helping Peru
cope with this massive earthquake".
Emergency telecommunication is the key for government and humanitarian aid
agencies involved in rescue operations, medical assistance and rehabilitation.
Mountainous terrain in Peru has severely hampered access and the coordination of
rescue operations. The restoration of telecommunication resources have helped
bridge these gaps and provided the much needed link for the transmission and
reception of high speed data for e-applications and for voice communications.
This has provided succour to both government authorities and relief agencies as
well as to the affected population.
ITU has been responsible for transporting and deploying all the terminals as
well as paying for the air time for using them.
Twelve of the terminals are Global Area Network (GAN) terminals and 38 are
regional broadband global network satellite terminals (RBGAN). The 12 GAN
terminals are capable of providing voice, data and video services, and the 38
RBGAN terminals provide high-speed data communications.
