Internet + satellite phones = emergency relief

Making informed decisions
To create the system, Innocenti teamed up with Tom Capone of My Technology Partners (MTP), a New Jersey company.

"What is really needed in any emergency is communication with the ability to access enough information to make an informed decision,” Innocenti said. “A term used by the military called 'Situational Awareness.’”

But while satellite phones deliver voice, data, and fax messages, Innocenti felt that was not enough. He wanted to be able to link to the Internet.

"Using the ‘data port’ on their sat phones they can access the E.R.I.N. Web site which looks like a control room of a top secret agency," Innocenti explained. In this way, a subscriber can track the news, weather, and traffic conditions during an emergency and even create emergency meetings.

“E.R.I.N. users can now dial into a satellite audio conference with up to 99 other users in their town or company simultaneously to evaluate or coordinate an effective response,” Innocenti said.

Free for schools and local government
The cost of E.R.I.N. is free for schools and municipalities. All they need to do is go to the web site and register.

Joe Martino, the Superintendent of Schools in Linden, N.J., explained that after 9/11 his district was very concerned about the ability to communicate. After investigating the system, they decided to get involved.

"Our mayor thought enough of it to include it in his own department, as well as the police emergency management,” Martino said.

The service seems to be catching and expanding nationally. "In the New York area we provide service to corporations such as The New York Maritime Association, ADP (Automatic Data Processing), Novartis, WakefernFood and a growing number of municipalities all the way to the Los Angeles Fire Department Mobile Command Units," Capone said.

Meanwhile, the debate about the importance of implementing a satellite phone system for disaster relief is also causing buzz in Washington.

Businesses and local and state governments within the U.S. are now being prompted to comply with the “Standard on Disaster /Emergency Management and Business Continuity Programs” which requires emergency communications to be in place for disaster recovery.

In September, Kevin Martin, the chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), told lawmakers that satellite technology has a key role in disaster relief efforts due to the vulnerability of terrestrial communications infrastructure.

Martin explained that the damage report during Katrina included almost three million telephone lines knocked down, 38 emergency 9-1-1 call centers disabled, more than 25 million calls failed, and hundreds of thousands of customers without cable television. But, through the chaos, satellite telephones worked.

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