The Disaster Preparedness Satellite Registry

From hurricanes to earthquakes, and from tsunamis to volcanic eruptions, the brutal calculus of cost – whether it’s measured in financial terms or in human lives – is being mitigated through new collaborative efforts of stakeholders in the public and private sectors. This is particularly evident in the way that wireless, fiber and other satelliteenabled information & communication technology (ICT) solutions are being applied by the United Nations’ aid agencies, non-government organizations (NGOs), host-nation governments, military, and the private sector to address mission-critical disaster preparedness and long-term development requirements.

However, a persistent challenge that has severely inhibited the public and private sectors’ efforts is the need for “pre-positioning” of ICT solutions that are local to the disaster zone and can be quickly used to support a disaster response effort. Further, how to link those same pre-positioned systems so they can not only be used for disaster response, but also repurposed after the disaster relief effort to achieve medium and long-term development objectives has not been realized at a satisfactory level.

Indeed, major challenges have thwarted a comprehensive global program designed to provide a pre-positioned solution. Not least among those challenges is the difficulty for any organization to cost-justify investment in communications systems that are prepositioned and which are either unused or under-utilized until a disaster occurs. This investment challenge is considerable in one region of a single country; it is overwhelming when considering a global pre-positioning solution.

Added to the cost-justification hurdle are other significant obstacles: Pre-positioned systems need to be maintained, which involves further expense. Often, licenses must be secured and kept current. Having locally trained technicians identified and available to deploy and/ or operate the systems and services is essential and comes at a further cost. And for the most part, disaster-response stakeholders often do not have an ICT approach that addresses the more robust on-the-ground collective solution that can also be transitioned into a medium and longer term infrastructure with scale capabilities – or that can eventually be transitioned into a permanent, locally-operated, commercial enterprise.

The following proposal is a solution that can be applied to address each of these challenges throughout a significant portion of the world; the first phase can be implemented with nearly immediate effect.

The GVF Disaster Preparedness Satellite Registry

GVF (Global VSAT Forum) is the global non-profit association of the satellite industry. Among its approximately 230 Member companies are all of the world’s major satellite-bandwidth suppliers and satellite equipment manufacturers, as well as many local and international connectivity providers. Collectively, these companies and their customers and contractors supply, install, maintain and operate more than one million earth stations located throughout the world.

These systems and services are currently being maintained and operated “sustainably”, which is to say that their use enables their owners to generate enough funds to keep the local operation running and, in most cases, to earn a profit. This profit enables further expansion of the networks to other locations throughout the world and strengthens development. Many of these systems and services are being used to support applications that are essential to development, including banking and financial services, agriculture, health, education, oil, gas & mining operations, mobile communications, fibre and other terrestrial last-mile extension, and much more.

Inherent in this existing value chain is a powerful solution to address the prepositioning challenge. GVF proposes to create an online registry in which all GVF Members will be invited to voluntarily identify their systems, services, and other resources that are currently operational and can be repurposed for use if/ when necessary to support disaster-relief efforts. The Registry will include the asset location and contact details.

When a disaster occurs, UN, NGO and governmental disaster-response stakeholders will be able to access the GVF Registry for free and use it to identify systems and services that are available locally to help support disaster response efforts. The terms and conditions pertaining to the use of the solutions are subject to agreement between the responder and the supplier.

The resources that could be included in the GVF Registry include a vast array of not only fixed and mobile satellite-based solutions, but also include all terrestrial systems that are applied by GVF Member companies in tandem with satellite communications, e.g. GSM, WiFi, WiMAX, fiber optic cable, pico and femtocells, and more.