[Satellite Today 07-30-08] Inmarsat’s BGAN will be used by a European Union-backed emergency response initiative to set up temporary GSM networks in disaster zones, Inmarsat announced July 29.
    The wireless infrastructure over satellite for emergency communications (Wisecom) initiative recently tested BGAN at the German Aerospace Centre using an exercise involving a mock disaster scene.
    Communications are maintained via the Inmarsat network using BGAN terminals, which are connected to a GSM picocell base station supplied by TriaGnoSys. The picocell base station is designed for deployment during the first days of an emergency and provides a 300-meter radius for communication between GSM devices at the disaster scene.
Inmarsat partner Ansur provided its Asign image communication solution for location-based delivery of photos via BGAN.