Vodafone deploys Instant Networks in Nepal
Teams equipped with Instant Network Minis deployed to help stranded victims communicate with families
The Vodafone Foundation has sent members of its Instant Network team to Nepal to help with the humanitarian effort following the devastating earthquake that hit the country on 25 April.
Vodafone equipped employees have arrived in the capital, Kathmandu, with the Instant Network Mini, an 11kg backpack-sized transmitter that can be set up in 10 minutes, even in the most remote areas.
More than 5,000 people have died and 6,500 been injured in the catastrophe, with more killed in neighbouring China and India.
Instant Network team members will support the device’s use and can also offer help to local mobile operators if they need to set up mobile communications in the area. This will allow aid workers to communicate with each other during the relief effort and survivors to contact family members outside the area to tell them they are safe.
Vodafone is working with Télécoms Sans Frontières on the relief mission to decide where the mobile networks need to be deployed.
Andrew Dunnett, Vodafone Foundation Director, said: “Establishing communications in the aftermath of a natural disaster is crucial, both for the coordination of aid and to enable those affected to reconnect with family and friends.
“Through our Instant Network programme, we are able to deploy our people and our technology to provide communications support at a critical time.”
Vodafone’s Instant Network technology was previously utilised in the Indian state of Odisha during Cyclone Phailin in 2013 and in the Philippines in November 2013 during Typhoon Haiyan, where it was used to make more than 443,000 calls and send 1.4 million SMSes in 29 days.
Source: http://www.itpro.co.uk/mobile/24533/vodafone-deploys-instant-networks-in-nepal#ixzz3ZobZNhL8