New flexible and affordable options for emergency communications via satellite

Jon Douglas

By Jon Douglas

Emergency response planning and Continuity of Operations Planning (COOP) initiatives consistently show up at the top of government chief information officers’ priority lists. However, recognizing the need and allocating the resources have proven to be very different for many agencies. This is certainly understandable. No one wants to buy a solution that they desperately hope to never use.

Unfortunately, the realities of disasters, both natural and man-made, have proven again and again the importance of having a reliable back-up communications solution; one that provides network diversity, not just network redundancy.

Government continuity planners have long recognized satellite communications as the only truly diverse networking solution, as it does not utilize the same terrestrial assets and is therefore not susceptible to disasters that affect their primary networks. Unfortunately, cost and perceived complexities have kept many government agencies from deploying such a solution.

However, technology advancements in the satellite industry -- both in the hardware and the actual service -- are changing that for many agencies. Today’s satellite networks can be deployed with the push of a single button from any location and support Voice over IP (VoIP), data, or even LMR communications from a mobile or fixed satellite location. And, because satellite capacity can be dynamically allocated where and when it is needed, government agencies can now deploy “pay-as-you-use” solutions such as Spacenet’s Emergency Communications Service (ECS), thereby significantly lowering their cost. Agencies deploy the network for a very low monthly standby fee and then only pay for the service when they actually need it.

The idea of a “part-time” service isn’t new, but what differentiates today’s ECS service is the guaranteed availability of bandwidth. In the past, part-time satellite service was sold on a highly oversubscribed and shared bandwidth model. This resulted in poor service quality, especially during emergency situations when multiple users need access.

Today’s ECS satellite network is part of a complete national managed network, insuring bandwidth availability regardless of the circumstances. The final result is a highly functional network backup solution that can meet all of an agency’s users’ requirements without imposing a high monthly cost on the agency.

Access to communications during emergency situations is critical to any government agency, particularly those tasked with insuring the security of the public. For these agencies, cost no longer needs to be a factor in their emergency network planning decisions. Providers, such as Spacenet, can insure network availability in any circumstances with an easy-to-deploy solution to support a government agency’s emergency communications needs.

Jon Douglas is the Marketing and Communications Director for Spacenet Inc., a supplier of emergency communications and managed network services. Douglas can be reached at:

Jon.Douglas@spacenet.com