Iridium Provides International Telecommunication Union Global Communications Services for Disaster Management
Fastest-Growing Mobile Satellite Services Provider Supports Effort to Help Save Lives
As the leading global provider of emergency communications, Iridium® Satellite announces it is contributing equipment and airtime services to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for its worldwide disaster management program.
“In the last several years, Hurricane Katrina and the southeast Asia tsunami taught us that, in emergency response missions, the availability of rapid communications has the power to diminish loss of life in some of the most needy and desperate situations on earth,” said Matt Desch, chairman and CEO, Iridium Satellite. “Through this agreement, ITU will provide first responders with reliable Iridium voice and data services so that they can more effectively help a greater number of people in the early days of an emergency. As a critical lifeline and vital public utility, the Iridium network operates independently of terrestrial infrastructure. This puts us in an excellent position to aid first responders wherever disaster strikes. When confronting increasingly challenging disasters around the world that result in widespread devastation, no matter where aid workers happen to be on the planet, our network will always be available for urgent communications.”
ITU has developed a disaster management program which aims to deliver and deploy telecommunications resources to countries, humanitarian organizations and victims of disasters in a timely manner. Mr. Sami Al Basheer Al Morshid, director of the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau, thanked Iridium for its generous contribution, adding: “Partnership building is an essential element of our work in emergency telecommunications. This agreement with Iridium goes a long way toward making telecommunications resources more accessible to both humanitarian workers and victims of disasters, especially in the immediate aftermath of disasters. The equipment and airtime will contribute to the narrowing of the existing resource gap.”
About Iridium Satellite
Iridium Satellite LLC (http://www.iridium.com/) is the only provider of truly global satellite voice and data solutions with complete coverage of the earth (including oceans, airways and Polar Regions). Iridium delivers essential communications services to and from remote areas where no other form of communication is available. The Iridium constellation consists of 66 low- earth orbiting (LEO), cross-linked satellites and has multiple in-orbit spares. The constellation operates as a fully meshed network and is the largest commercial satellite constellation in the world. The Iridium service is ideally suited for industries such as maritime, aviation, government/military, emergency/humanitarian services, mining, forestry, oil and gas, heavy equipment, transportation and utilities. Iridium provides service to the U.S. Department of Defense. The company also designs, builds and sells its services, products and solutions through a worldwide network of more than 150 partners.
About International Telecommunication Union
ITU (http://www.itu.int/) is the leading United Nations agency for information and communication technology issues, and the global focal point for governments and the private sector in developing networks and services. For more than 140 years, ITU has coordinated the shared global use of the radio spectrum, promoted international cooperation in assigning satellite orbits, worked to improve telecommunication infrastructure in the developing world, and established the worldwide standards that foster seamless interconnection of a vast range of communications systems.
