Isolated villages cut off by theearthquake in Indonesiahave received food and aid
thanks to innovative use of satellite technology.
Red
Cross workers have been on the scene since the earthquake on 30
September which killed more than 1,000 people. Their job is to
receive, process and send out aid via helicopter to the affected
villages.
To get to the most isolated areas, staff equipped with satellite
phones were sent to the villages and used BGAN terminals, which are
capable of providing simultaneous telephone and broadband
connections, to communicate with staff in Padang and a helicopter
base station.
Team leader Jamie Richardson said, "Without the helicopters we
wouldn't have been able to reach the villages with aid and medical
teams and they would have been cut off for months. Having that
communication was vital."
Telephone and power lines are down and the people in these
villages have been cut off by landslides caused by the
earthquake.
The equipment was supplied by BT, and the company is donating
£300,000 for IT and satellite telephony equipment.
Richardson said, "We constantly need to share detailed
information, so computers and the internet are essential for
communicating between the team; when we're out in the field, we
can't rely on landlines or the mobile network, so we have to use
satellite phones and BGAN units. Before we can do anything we need
to have the tools to do the job, and information technology is
absolutely vital to what we do."