[Satellite News 05-28-09] Télécoms Sans Frontières (TSF) President Jean-François Cazenave believes that perceptions towards satellite technology for disaster management and recovery are changing – a shift which puts greater focus on the need for non-governmental organizations (NGO) such as TSF.
    Cazenave’s organization aims to play a key role helping nations recover in the wake of conflicts, when the use of satellite technology often is critical. “TSF is mainly an emergency response NGO which deploys within 24 hours anywhere in the world to provide vital satellite communications to aid agencies and civilians. Our missions generally last for one or two months, and we do not replace local operators buy fixing infrastructure but rather install temporary services during the emergency phase,” said Cazenave.
In an interview with Satellite News, Cazenave discussed TSF’s long-terms projects in disaster preparedness and prevention and explained how satellite communications play a key role in areas still uncovered by land and mobile networks.

Cazenave: In Niger, during the 2005 crisis, the government encountered severe difficulty sending information from remote areas of the country to decision makers due to lack of communications. This was identified as a key problem inhibiting the race to save lives in a food crisis. Funded by the European Commission Humanitarian Office (ECHO), we responded to the government’s need by deploying a rapid-response communications team which established a satellite and radio communications network so that information could be sent in real time from even the most isolated regions to the capital. We also built new software to digitalize and centralize the early warning system’s information to empower responders to follow up on situation reports and take immediate action to facilitate aid coordination in crisis situations.

Cazenave: It is difficult to set a general rule since telecom providers will often compare investment costs of installing terrestrial infrastructure and of installing satellite and will choose the most cost effective solution. However, even in areas where land and mobile infrastructure exist, government agencies and rescue teams need dedicated channels to coordinate in emergency situations where landlines can be destroyed and mobile networks saturated. So satellite technology can and will continue to play an important role in helping nations having access to reliable telecommunications.

Cazenave: WiMax is an additional solution but will not necessarily replace satellite everywhere, at least for the moment. Again, some users such as government agencies and aid organizations need fast, deployable dedicated channels to better coordinate, and satellite is still the best solution. It can be more expensive, but when you’re saving lives you are prepared to pay the price.  

Cazenave: We did notice a change in the perception of satellite technology in recent years. First of all, reliable telecommunications is now recognized as a key to successful emergency response and coordination. When we started TSF 10 years ago, people often wondered why people and those helping them needed telecommunications. Now there’s no question around it. In natural disaster situations or in humanitarian crises in isolated areas, satellite is the only fast deployable and reliable solution.
Showing the importance of telecommunications in emergencies, ECHO, which is the leading humanitarian donor in the world, will fund TSF to share its experience and train more emergency responders on the usage of satellite communications equipment so that more aid agencies have access to reliable communications anywhere in the world and in a matter of minutes.
    Beyond emergencies, even in countries like in France, providers offer satellite to clients living in remote or mountainous areas where no terrestrial infrastructure is available. The same happens of course in countries of Africa and other parts of the world where cybercafés are connected to satellite. It may be slightly more expensive in some cases but it gives access to the same services in remote and is urban areas. It’s a chance for people to have access to a technology they didn’t have before and would not have before many years if they only relied on terrestrial infrastructure.

Cazenave: TSF will be increasingly involved in prevention and preparedness projects in the future as our objective is to use telecommunications to ease the effects of humanitarian crisis, help emergency responders be better prepared and, therefore, save more lives. Beyond saving lives, donors are also realizing that putting money into prevention and preparedness can be more efficient than waiting for the emergency to happen. A U.N. study showed that $1 spent on prevention saves $7 in responding to the emergency. We are very grateful to companies like Inmarsat and Eutelsat for their support. There is still a lot to do though and with more support from the corporate sector we could even more. If it seemed natural in the past 30 years that pharmaceutical and food companies would help NGOs in their humanitarian actions, with the same engagement the telecoms and new technologies industry can help us save lives.