ITU-D -FLASH • 2015 ITU, JAPAN AND THE PHILIPPINES LAUNCH MOBILE COMMUNICATION SYSTEM FOR EMERGENCIES A movable and deployable ICT resource unit, known as MDRU, has been deployed in the coastal town of San Remigio in Cebu, in the Philippines on 10 February, 2015.The town was among the areas devastated by Typhoon Haiyan which struck the Philippines in November 2013.The MDRU is equipped with an array of communications equipment, servers and storage devices and can be rapidly deployed to provide emergency telecommunication services and ICT infrastructure after a disaster. An MDRU accommodates equipment for reproducing ICT services such as switches, routers, wired and wireless transmitters, receivers and servers.The deployment ceremony was attended by Mr Ioane Koroivuki ITU Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific, Mr Kiyoshi Mori, Director-General for International Affairs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of Japan, Dr. Atsushi Takahara, Executive Director of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation and Mayor Mariano R. Martinez of the Municipality of San Remigio. “The development and successful deployment of the Movable and Deployable ICT Resource Unit is the culmination of a fruitful co-operation between ITU, Japan and the Philippines,” says Brahima Sanou, Director of the ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau. “ITU acknowledges that when disasters occur, telecommunication services must be restored as quickly as possible. I am confident that this new facility will go a long way to enhance Philippines’ emergency telecommunications response capacity.”Destruction caused by Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines in 2013 (Credit: UN Photo)MDRU equipment mounted inside a vehicle (Credit: NTT Japan)