Télécoms Sans Frontières - Communications for Life

We applaud the work of Télécoms Sans Frontières …

Their Origin: During missions respond­ing to the crisis in the Balkans and in Kurdistan during the 1^st Gulf War, Télécoms Sans Frontières’ (TSF) founders realized that, in addition to medical and food aid, there was a criti­cal need for reliable emergency telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions services. Conflicts and emergen­cies often led to massive civil­ian displace­ment and separated families. And affected popula­tions are often left with no commu­ni­ca­tions infra­struc­ture in place to find assis­tance and loved ones. To address this need, TSF bought its first satel­lite phone eleven years ago and the organi­za­tion was born. For all missions today, TSF offers a 3-minute call to any affected family.

TSF soon found that the inter­na­tional response teams that deploy to emergen­cies also had a criti­cal need for reliable telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions services in the first days after an emergency. TSF, there­fore, expanded its opera­tions, improved its technol­ogy, and began to estab­lish rapidly deploy­able emergency telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions centers to serve UN, govern­ment, and NGO human­i­tar­ian workers, and devel­oped a reputa­tion for being among the first to arrive after disasters.

Mission Haiti 2010: Deployed in Haiti the day follow­ing the terri­ble earth­quake that struck the country, TSF teams remain mobilized, day after day, support­ing the human­i­tar­ian commu­nity and the affected popula­tion. Three calling centers have been estab­lished in Port-au-Prince, Carrefour and Jacmel that are open for the people of Haiti: Union School in Port-au-Prince, Adventistes in Carrefour and Rue Febrile in Jacmel.

Everyone should know more about the work of this organization!

Special Rates on Satellite Phones for Haiti Response

Iridium 9555 satel­lite phones with discounted airtime rates for Haiti response teams.

For organi­za­tions respond­ing to the earth­quake in Haiti, we can off the follow­ing discounted rates. Order by 3:00 PM Eastern for same-day shipping.

Iridium 9555 to Buy  -  $1,995 with 500-minute bundle
Iridium 9555 to Rent  -  $295/week + airtime (2-week minimum)

Other airtime options are avail­able. Contact us to order or for more details.

More details on the phone: Iridium 9555.

No Portable Satcom in Haiti? How are They? What do They Need?

Watching CNN’s cover­age of the devas­tat­ing 7.0 earth­quake that hit Haiti early this evening, I found myself gasping at the thought that key relief agencies and media outlets still find themselves strug­gling to commu­ni­cate years after Katrina and 9/11.

The Miami Herald was not Connected

When asked in the early hours after the quake hit, on “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer,” what The Miami Herald knew of the devel­op­ing situa­tion, their Carribean corre­spon­dent Jacquie Charles essen­tially said they didn’t know because they couldn’t connect with anyone there.

“Well, we’re still trying to get through because all the commu­ni­ca­tions is down … We have people en route to Haiti right now and we also have a ‘stringer’ on the ground, but because the commu­ni­ca­tions are all down, we cannot get through to anyone at this moment.”

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Everybody Needs a Tap Code

This week, PBS aired a phenom­e­nal series on human emotion and social inter­ac­tion called “This Emotional Life.” I was partic­u­larly struck by a segment on human resilience in which a Vietnam veteran — Bob Shumaker, a POW for 8 years — shared his amazing story.

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Operable or Interoperable Communications? The Chicken or the Egg?

Operable or inter­op­er­a­ble — which came first? A few defin­i­tions to get you thinkin’:

• Communications = a process of trans­fer­ring infor­ma­tion from one entity to another
• Operable = able to operate/perform your duties
• Interoperable = able to exchange and use information
• Interoperability = ability to work with each other

With all the talk of commu­ni­ca­tions inter­op­er­abil­ity and all the money we’ve spent since 9/11, you’d think this problem has been solved. Perhaps it has in some specific cases, but for the major­ity of U.S. commu­ni­ties — despite the best of inten­tions — inter­op­er­abil­ity as well as basic commu­ni­ca­tions operabil­ity is still lacking as a funda­men­tal corner­stone of our local, regional, and national preparedness.

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Take Your Network with You!

For better or worse — we live in a networked world. Even in the remote Hida Alps on a recent trip to Japan (to partic­i­pate in the 50^th anniver­sary of the estab­lish­ment of Sukyo Mahikari) — telephone and Internet connec­tions were in demand for my fellow travel­ers who had made the trip to make a spiri­tual connec­tion (with the spiri­tual lineage of Light). From this remote location, they felt the need to stay connected with people on the other side of the globe.

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OODAkit FAQs

Here are the OODAkit FAQs. But if we missed your questions, please post it the comment field below so we can include it!

Communications Portability

Much like having no potable water, having commu­ni­ca­tions assets that aren’t portable is not all that useful. Imagine if your cell phone were the size of your suitcase (or even as small as your laptop). Just how useful would that be?

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Timely Connections for Uncertain Times

OODAkits deliver phone and Internet services not subject to Mother Nature or geography.