Wireless has been mobilized in a variety of critical and innovative ways in reaction to the December tsunami disaster.
The wall of water that struck parts of Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and elsewhere served to severely disrupt some telecommunications networks. According to company statements and press reports, the main undersea cables largely survived the disaster, although a Malaysian link was reported down. The GSM network in the southeastern part of Sri Lanka was unreliable. In the northern Indonesian region of Banda Aceh, both landline and wireless networks were washed away. And Indian operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. said it had restored much of its network except the telecommunications exchanges in Car Nicobar.
To restore communications for survivors and aid workers, the telecommunications aid group Telecoms sans Frontieres (Telecommunications without Borders, modeled after the aid group Doctors without Borders) sent workers to the region just hours after the wave hit. The nongovernmental group operates with the support of AT&T Corp., Vodafone Group plc, Cable & Wireless and others. TSF said it installed a telecommunications center in the United Nations Coordination Center in Banda Aceh and helped to repair the downed telecom network in Hambontota, Sri Lanka.
L.M. Ericsson is also working in the region to restore telecommunications. The company said its disaster-relief team arrived in the region within 24 hours after the tsunami hit, and it donated a wireless system to the government of Indonesia. The company said it also donated a container-based GSM system for communications between aid organizations.
TSF, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications L.P. and Nokia Corp. said they donated mobile phones and satellite phones to survivors and aid workers.
As networks came back online, aid workers turned to wireless operators to help tally the survivors. The governments of Finland, the Czech Republic, Italy and Sri Lanka asked local carriers to send text messages to subscribers who were in the region when the tsunami hit. The messages asked subscribers to respond with their locations and conditions. According to the Tidal Wave Rescue Center, around 10,000 phones were roaming in Thailand at the time of the tsunami. The center said it sent text messages to all of those handsets asking users to check in through a toll-free number, and it received responses from about 2,300 people. The center said around 4,300 of those roaming phones have since been used to place calls, while the rest have remained silent.
To help survivors get in touch with family and friends, some carriers waved roaming fees for calls placed to and from the affected areas. Norwegian carrier Telenor and Australian carrier Telstra said their subscribers could apply for refunds on calls placed to and from the tsunami-shattered countries.
As the tsunami’s death toll continued to rise, wireless companies began stepping in with donations to aid organizations. Texas Instruments Inc. donated $500,000; Nortel Networks Ltd. promised $350,000; Verizon Wireless pledged more than $1 million through employee and corporate donations; Vodafone donated almost $1.9 million; Telstra donated $100,000; Cingular Wireless said it will give up to $1 million by matching employee donations; Sprint donated $50,000 directly and will match employee donations up to $50,000; VeriFone donated $100,000; Motorola donated $1 million and will also match employee donations up to $1 million; and Alcatel donated $1 million.
Aside from corporate donations, carriers around the world also engaged in a relatively new form of fund raising-one that some believe could add a powerful new source of funds for the world’s charities. Operators in the United States, Europe and Asia set up text-messaging programs that allowed subscribers to donate money to tsunami disaster-relief efforts and have the charges put on their monthly wireless bills. In the United States, fund-raising programs from Cingular Wireless and Verizon Wireless will reach a total of around 88 million U.S. wireless users. Under Cingular’s program, the carrier last week began sending text messages to all of its subscribers, and recipients could trigger donations of $1 or $2 by responding to the messages. Verizon said it would publish a short code to which subscribers could send text messages to donate money. Verizon said it wouldn’t directly send text messages for fear of irritating its customers with unsolicited messages. Other carriers conducting similar text-messaging campaigns include Vodafone, Hutchison, MmO2, Wind and Telecom Italia Mobile, which said it has raised more than $20 million.
On the content side, Zaptophone.com and FunMail said they would allow customers to donate to the relief effort by purchasing charity-themed ring tones and wallpaper.
As the world mobilizes to aid the areas devastated by the tsunami, some have begun looking to wireless as a way to prevent similar disasters. Policy-makers in Washington are considering legislation that would link mobile phones to the emergency broadcast network. Under the approach, warnings would be broadcast through television, radio and text messages sent to mobile phones. Policy-makers are also considering a way to link the Pacific Ocean warning system-which would warn West Coast residents of ocean threats-to the emergency broadcast network. Warnings from the Pacific system are now sent to city and county governments, but not to the emergency broadcast system.
Washington, D.C., reporter Heather Forsgren Weaver contributed to this report.
