Emergency comms equipment for Nepal

The ITU has deployed emergency telecommunication equipment in Nepal following the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that hit the country on 25 April.

The emergency equipment includes 35 satellite mobile phones and 10 satellite Broadband Global Area Network terminals along with solar panels and laptops to support relief coordination efforts.

“Emergency telecommunications play a critical role in the immediate aftermath of disasters,” said Mr Brahima Sanou, director of the ITU’s Telecommunication Development Bureau. “They ensure timely flow of information that is much needed by government agencies and other humanitarian actors involved in rescue operations.”

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), initial government reports confirm that 30 out of 75 districts in the country have been affected in the Western and Central Regions, including Kathmandu Valley. This includes mountainous and hilly terrain in areas where rural populations are widely dispersed as well as some very densely populated cities - the greater Kathmandu area, Bhaktapur and Pokhara.

At the Third UN Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction held in Sendai, Japan, the ITU addressed the importance of linking information and communication technologies to disaster risk reduction.

The ITU considers emergency telecommunications an integral part of the post-2015 development agenda.

In addition, emergency.lu - a public-private partnership between the Luxembourg government and three Luxembourg-based companies: SES Techcom Services, Hitec Luxembourg and Luxembourg Air Ambulance - is providing vital connectivity services in the most severely affected region between Kathmandu and Pokhara.

Communication services offered by emergency.lu provide connectivity to humanitarian responders in Nepal and are being deployed in close collaboration with the Emergency Telecommunications Cluster led by the World Food Programme.

Three rapid deployment kits have been deployed, including two kits redirected to Nepal from Vanuatu, where one kit remains in operation and continues to provide connectivity until the local infrastructure is restored on Tanna Island. All kits are providing reliable connectivity using the SES satellite network.