In a country devastated by recent armed conflict, all public telecommunication networks, however limited they might have been before the war, had been disrupted. A large-scale humanitarian operation was undertaken by international organizations. A private enterprise, provider of telecommunication equipment and services, was among the non-governmental partners in this operation. This company now offered to rapidly deploy, free of charge, a cellular mobile telephone system, providing local and international communications for the organizations working in the capital of the affected country.

The organizations welcomed this generous offer. Three mobile base stations were quickly deployed and connected to an international gateway in another country through a VSAT satellite link. A license was not applied for; provider and users considered the system as a private network used in a disaster response operation and therefore as privileged under the "Tampere Convention".

The government and also several non-governmental organizations of the affected country were important partners in the relief efforts. Including them into the emergency telecommunication network installed by the private sector donor, appeared to be the logical consequence, and some of the mobile phones were handed over to the national partner institutions. The donor covered the cost of all communications, so that the use of this equipment would not put a financial burden on the national partners. Aside from the humanitarian aspect of its contribution, the enterprise had of course expected favourable consideration for later bids on major contracts, once the relief operations would be followed by the implementation of development projects.

However: What looked like a perfect solution to everyone's emergency communication needs, turned out to also be the end of the network: Making the initially private network of international humanitarian organizations available also to other partners made this network a public service. As such, it would have needed a license from the authorities of the host country. Consequently, the Ministry of Telecommunications ordered the network to be closed down and the installations to be dismantled. The network infrastructure was replaced by a similar system, provided by another foreign enterprise. An earlier government had, years ago, before the war, granted a licence for countrywide mobile networks to this service provider, and the new government decided to apply this document.

Lesson learned:  Opening a specialized, private network to others made the system into a public network, subject to regulations, which had not been respected. Had these regulations been considered in time, a valuable tool for the humanitarian relief operations would not have been lost. During an acute emergency, other issues understandably have priority over regulatory. In a very short time, however, national rules and regulations governing telecommunication networks are likely to again be invoked and strictly enforced.