Corporations and some government agencies have used wireless technologies to make their labor more mobile for years. But when a disaster can make the infrastructure supporting wireless literally vanish, disaster relief specialists need more than a just a conventional cellphone or BlackBerry.
Now commercial technology that can set up a global communications network in under an hour is emerging. These technologies can support devices like personal digital assistants (PDAs) and cellphones in places where infrastructure breaks down. With a little help from satellites, wireless is saving lives.
Recent disasters have offered a unique testing ground for burgeoning wireless technology. Events from Hurricane Katrina to California wildfires have illustrated the need for a diverse communications infrastructure with various technologies playing key roles.
When using wireless networks to communicate through a disaster, the scope of communications infrastructure is especially important, says Skip Williams, President of Kingsbridge Systems, a disaster-planning consulting company.
"If the disaster strikes just your block or business, then [existing wireless] is extremely useful," Williams says. "But if [a disruption is] more widespread, then it can cause problems."
Communications networks, however, are fairly robust and can withstand some pretty remarkable devastation. When the Twin Towers collapsed, they knocked out cables and cell towers attached to the buildings, disrupting Internet and cell service all over New York City. But that disruption turned out to be only temporary; fail-safes, or backup networks, quickly jumped into place, allowing people to keep in contact with relatives and loved ones.
Natural disasters with a bigger geographic reach tend to be more devastating to communications systems. Networks and their backups were simply washed away in Hurricane Katrina.
Solely relying on ground-based wireless in a disaster situation would be foolish, Williams says. "Wireless can be really useful but it shouldn't be the only solution in this kind of situation," he adds.
In past years, the military has turned to costly satellite-and-radio combinations to keep up communications in remote places. Now some of the companies that catered to the military in the past are making low-cost versions of the technology available to the private sector.
Telecommunications company DataPath, based in Duluth, Ga., for instance, now makes communications satellite systems that can be packed into trailers and set up in about 30 minutes. When cell towers go down, first responders can use this technology to get a communications network up and coordinating first responders.
The company's trailers provide disaster management with high-connectivity bandwidth terminals that can be connected to cell towers and used to restore emergency service. Combined with satellites and cellular, satellite communications, known as SATCOM, magnifies reach and can provide access among a range of devices--from PDAs to laptops to global positioning system satellites. The system even makes video-conferencing an option.
"Hurricane Katrina demonstrated the need for local responders, National Guard [and] state and federal agencies to coordinate efforts in a way not seen before," says DataPath Chief Executive Dave Helfgott. "Each entity, with [its] vital services, lacked a cohesive way to communicate effectively with each other."
DataPath recently scored a $16.7 million contract with the National Guard to provide 32 mobile SATCOM trailers that can provide wireless communication much farther than previous radio technology could.
But DataPath's solution isn't military grade. In fact, their SATCOM trailers are available commercially. The only modification for the Guard was a slightly higher antenna.
Even Helfgott is willing to admit that wireless services aren't going to solve every problem in a widespread disaster, but these services enable a rapid response other technologies don't offer.
"Once the satellite is involved, which takes about 30 minutes to set up, you get the Internet, and your laptop works like what you have in your home or office," Helfgott says.
