Better disaster response through improvement of communication technologies

One of the major preventable causes for loss of lives during disasters is the failure of telecommunications infrastructure. Satellite communication networks are unaffected by natural disasters, but Broadband global area network (BGAN) satellite phones are too expensive for wide-scale deployment. By combining a portable base station with a satellite network back haul, emergency services could rapidly deploy a network to remote teams and headquarters to optimize the aid effort, and therefore safe tens, hundreds and even thousands of lives.