BURNABY, B.C. – Telecom service provider and retailer Glentel Inc. today announced the launch of EMERGNET BC – a mobile satellite system (MSAT) built to keep British Columbia’s Emergency Preparedness and Emergency Response organizations in constant communication under the most critical circumstances.
The system, which utilizes Glentel’s MSAT technology, comprises two newly created satellite radio talk groups developed to aid reliable, inter-operational communications in the event of a disaster or wide-spread emergency.
Disasters, whether natural or man-made, can cripple public and private telecommunication services, leaving emergency response teams helpless to coordinate a quick and timely response. The two EMERGNET BC talk groups, developed in conjunction with Simon Fraser University’s Telematics Research Lab, may be used independently of terrestrial satellite or public and cellular telephone networks. These groups also have no reliance on traditional communications infrastructure, says the Glentel press release.
Both of the EMERGNET BC talk groups – BC Emergency Private Mode and BC Emergency Interoperability – are capable of interfacing with multiple users. Each offers a variety of applications to allow users from different organizations to remain in uninterrupted contact. The BC Emergency Interoperability talk group also allows communication between multiple users at the same time. This one-to-many (or point-to-multipoint) functionality enables a single message to be quickly and concisely delivered to a number of different parties, saving time and mitigating the likelihood of dangerous miscommunication.
Glentel’s EMERGNET BC talk groups are not meant as a replacement to organizations’ private communications networks but are meant to provide a safe second line of defence. In the event of a threatening forest fire, earthquake or tsunami which could devastate the province’s terrestrial sites, shut down power grids, and overwhelm limited phone networks, EMERGNET BC subscribers will still have access to secure voice radio dispatch communications among various agencies and organizations.
The effectiveness of mobile satellite in disaster response has led to its use in a variety of disasters and public emergencies in recent years. More than 300 MSAT units were deployed in the State of Mississippi prior to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and remained operational before, during and after the hurricane hit. A number of units were also deployed during the ice storms which paralyzed much of eastern Canada in 1998.
In B.C., Glentel’s mobile satellite radio talk groups are being used by organizations such as the West Coast Regional Districts Health Authorities, who is using the system to link together its major assets and resources and provide a means of communication among its hospitals. BC’s Coastal Communities Network, another EMERGNET BC subscriber, uses the system as a link for tsunami warning, response, and coordination as the primary reason. By utilizing the talk groups, Coastal Communities is able to provide a much-needed communications link between BC’s small, remote coastal villages and various agencies and ministries should an emergency situation occur.
