Alternative Uses Of Emergency Communications Networks Driving New Market

When terrestrial communications equipment has either been destroyed or rendered unavailable, satellite-based emergency systems receive praise for picking up the slack. But memories fade after the debris is cleaned up, and emergency communications providers are find that their systems must serve multiple purposes in order to attract potential customers.
Fully redundant networks provide operational continuity, but they can lose their importance if customers balk at paying the high cost to maintain systems that are used only when an emergency arises. Enabling the emergency systems to provide complimentary services that provide additional revenue is one way to keep these customers interested, but is this trend real and is it creating a new robust demand cycle for satellite players?
“The performance of satellite systems has proven impressive as a means of risk mitigation for telecom outages, but they can only be effective if they are built into disaster-recovery and business-continuity plans well in advance,” says David Myers, senior vice president of marketing & corporate development for Spacenet. The importance of planning for redundancy to terrestrial telecommunications systems and pre-positioning equipment for rapid deployment cannot be overemphasized, he says.

Government Continuity Goal

The U.S. government and its many agencies have embraced the full continuity of emergency communication networks. “We have had many instances in the recent past of emergency communication uses of satellite technology,” says Jim Gilbert, CEO of On Call Communications. “Most recently, first responders used our services during the Tennessee Valley Tornadoes and last fall’s California Wildfires. During the Tennessee Valley Tornadoes in February, FEMA (the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency) deployed mobile disaster recovery units equipped with On Call’s QuickSpot system, enabling secure, high-speed Internet, voice and fax lines for its employees to operate out of their mobile offices. They also used videoconferencing and webcasting to assess and relay the extent of the damage.”
Along with the federal government, Jay Yass, Intelsat’s vice president of network services, says the company is seeing strong interest in emergency communications systems from state and local agencies as well. “We have seen a surge in emergency communications planning and deployments since Hurricane Katrina,” he says. “First responders are interested in solutions that can accommodate new technologies and applications as well as higher data rates to support increasing demand for videoconferencing and streaming video from the disaster scenes. High-bandwidth IP solutions are a clear choice for organizations who want to support multiple applications since IP is a versatile platform and a globally accepted standard. IP-based devices are getting more efficient all the time, so an IP based solution offers options for future expansion,” he says.
Federal funding is being driven down to the states and their local city governments, says Amy Kudwa, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. “Satellites are absolutely part of their toolkit, such as satellite use in the California forest fires and for law enforcement as in mapping of the Washington D.C. sniper [case]. Homeland Security recognizes the value of satellites and is streamlining the process to make it more efficient for homeland security purposes,” she says.
 “Adoption of satellite-based emergency communication networks is being driven by more funding and attention,” says Myers. “The agenda is interoperability and real-time switchover between primary and stand-by communications. We are in an era of where there is a real push to make continuity of operations a reality,” says Myers.
“We receive lots of requests for easily portable solutions and so have developed hybrid fly and drive systems which can ship via overnight carriers or fit in the back of a pickup truck to meet that need,” says Gilbert. “Budget is always a consideration so we have focused on developing transportable systems at a price point within the reach of local public safety agencies.”
Along with more funding, the government also is at the forefront in terms of finding alternative use for emergency networks, using them for providing services such as distance learning, medical records access and regulatory downloads as well as other administrative functions.  Among the key U.S. government agencies which have championed alternative uses of emergency communications systems are the Department of Justice and the Air Force. Security is not a concern because the IP security protocols protects their core networks and allow them to share their networks in an operable manner.
FEMA has learned from its mistakes in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, says Karl Fuchs, director of systems engineering for iDirect Government Technologies. The agency suffered from the problem of high recurring cost for keeping a system available that is used only when disaster strikes, but now using iDirect equipment, FEMA pays only a small recurring charge and then pays a premium when the disaster happens and federal funds begin to flow to cover the cost.
The ultimate goal of the U.S. government is to build a robust and optimized network with stand-by nodes which can be operationally easy to switch on for narrow and broadband in a time of an emergency. The key issue is will these injected funds remove the mindset of local state first responders; namely, whether emergency communication networks are only for emergencies or disasters? At the local government level, the traction only is beginning and will require education to bring alternative communications and continuity networks to the forefront of administrator’s emergency network priorities.
“Local first responder government agencies [see] the cost of equipment as too high, the difficulty of hiring skilled manpower, the lack of training to develop the skills to implement the [emergency communications networks] and simply not having enough of the physical resources to meet the highest standards of emergency response,” says Charles Mason, vice president of Tri-Sentinel, a Silicon Valley first responder technology firm.
Technology advancement is also playing a key role in the growth of the dual-use systems. Mobile Satellite Ventures (MSV) plans to operate ancillary terrestrial component (ATC) facilities providing voice and data communication via L-band frequencies for users equipped with dual-mode handsets. “By 2010-2011 our technology will dramatically change the [emergency communications network] and lead to alternative uses and be driven by Mobile Satellite Ventures’ next generation of hybrid MSS (mobile satellite services) architecture and new innovative terrestrial hand sets,” says Jim Corry, vice president of government solutions for MSV. “FEMA will now be able to provide a phone for everyone when a disaster strikes. Plus, MSS-ATC technology will lead to a surge in demand from enterprises and consumers.” 

Benefits For Private Entities

The reliability of a business’ network systems and communications also is critical in today’s competitive global market. Companies must be online for their normal operations but also cannot afford to lose communications in the aftermath of a disaster. However the enterprise chooses to fund its continuity solution, the key question the enterprise must ask is not, ‘How much stand-by communications can I afford?’ but rather ‘How long can my business afford to be offline?’
Many big box retailers, brokerage firms, banks and restaurant chains have emergency applications scripted into their operational plans, with the systems in place to mitigate a projected lost of 2 percent to 16 percent of revenue that could occur during unexpected downtime. While serving as an emergency backup communications systems, a fully redundant satellite network does not have to sit idle waiting for a disaster to occur. By using the satellite system during normal operations for broadcast applications such as distance learning or digital signage as well as point of sale or credit and other web applications, a disaster continuity objective can be built into the business process, says Anthony Bardo, assistant vice president of government services for Hughes Network Systems, who cites Wal-Mart use of backup satellite system during Katrina to keep its stores operational.
Marc LeGare, CEO of PCI, which delivers IP-based communications in austere environments in the United States and around the globe, says businesses are seeing a real value in the dual use aspects of the emergency communication networks such as the company’s Spartan system, which can provides restoration communications to small businesses as well as emergency services for first responders. Regional medical centers throughout the Gulf of Mexico have needs for Voice Over IP communications and instant data access, while the alternative emergency communications network also can deliver communications for crews cleaning up oil spills. This can be self-supporting for the emergency agencies and profitable for private use. The network architecture will be multi-layer, interoperable and in an on-the-move-broadband status. “Building on the fly is always difficult, but it makes a lot more sense to have an always-on mode which is populated with people who have various needs,” he says.
Michael Gros, vice president of network operations for Broadpoint, says, “The biggest killer to an alternative use of the emergency networks is the affordability of the standby spectrum, which remains quite thin. The demand is high and availability still remains low. Still, latency remains a technical concern when satellites are introduced into a GSM or CDMA network. Gros believes one way of overcoming the realities of physics is to know how to implement the satellite capabilities into different sectors of the network. “You can move the processing core to remote and then move time sensitive traffic via IP over the satellite link,” he says. The Harris County Texas sheriff’s Department of Emergency Communication uses Broadpoint’s Flexible Emergency Response system. The network uses small amounts of bandwidth when no emergency exist and shares its bandwidth with the county school districts.
A consortium of universities in Kentucky, funded by the Department of Homeland Security, has spent three years developing and testing rapidly deployable incident command systems for use in the first critical hours following an emergency. To ensure data and voice communications over the Internet regardless of the situation, each system comes equipped with radio, cellular and satellite technology — including Broadband Global Area Network  (BGAN) capability from Stratos Global. Mark Garland,  a researcher with Murray State University’s Center for Telecommunications Systems Management, says, “Wherever cell towers are damaged or inoperable, even in metropolitan areas BGAN would be invaluable.”
Ian Canning, vice president of marketing and product development for Stratos, says, “Using dual-use emergency networks has really stepped up. Now we have technology which is affordable and deployable in small mobile packages for MSS and terminals are now easier to set up with out a need for skilled tuning.”
With today’s technology and the need for communications, cost for an alternative use should not be a constraint, says Myers. “With on-demand services, an enterprise can pay a nominal monthly fee to be live and in hot stand-by mode on the satellite network.  Then, in the event of a simple network outage or even a large-scale disaster, the enterprise only pays for the satellite bandwidth they actually use at the time they need it. This insurance policy approach significantly lowers the budget barrier for an organization needing telecom risk mitigation.”
To help maximize the [return on investment] of a VSAT risk mitigation solution, enterprises also can use the satellite during normal operations for multicast and broadcast applications such as digital signage or business TV. In the event of a terrestrial failure, these applications are put on hold while more critical voice and data traffic takes over the VSAT link. Once terrestrial lines are restored, the voice and data traffic automatically switches back to the landline and the broadcast applications resume service.

Global Developments

These dual-use systems also are gaining traction around the globe. Global Relief Technologies provides data collection solution that transmits critical information via a secure integrated system. This application, originally designed for the humanitarian and reconstruction communities, has found its way into multiple user groups which are using is as a total logistics package. The U.S. Marine Corp is among the company’s customers, using the system to extended its emergency communications into a daily solution for business continuity operations.”
When snow storms overwhelmed China in early 2008, C-Com Satellite Systems Inc. of Ottawa, helped provide a system that enabled Internet access and “a universal platform for various applications that are needed for an emergency response and mobile office,” says Leslie Klein, the company’s president. Such applications include: videoconferencing telemedicine and e-health, distance learning and training, Voice Over IP, and digital signage, he says.
The U.K. government also is pushing funding down to the local level for equipment and to create a baseline of usage which is needed for local governments, says Canning. Interoperability is the key to an alternative emergency communication network. “You must have a strategy of cross pollination or it will not work,” he says.

Shift In Thinking

A trend is developing regarding the sharing and alternative use of emergency networks. Complimentary services to the emergency communications can provide additional revenue and supportive funding with business implications for government and non-government agencies. Moreover, complimentary services could provide the impetus for a new robust demand cycle for the satellite industry.