Thuraya Telecommunications Company signed a MoU (memorandum of understanding) with Huawei at the INTERPOL WORLD 2017 event, the public safety conference and exhibition in Singapore in July.
Thuraya says that its partnership with Huawei merges capabilities for crisis and disaster management. With over 20 years of experience in relief communications, critical communications and disaster management, Thuraya offers satellite connectivity for deployment in emergencies. The company’s satellite broadband and M2M terminals, satellite phones, SatSleeve adaptors and other products are designed for critical communications for first responders. The ‘convergence’ of satellite and terrestrial GSM services gives users the flexibility to control communications and related costs in disaster regions, the telecoms firm says.
The recent launch of Thuraya Aero offers airborne satellite communication to government and relief aviation operations. Solar-powered voice, fax, internet and SMS services can also be set up via Thuraya’s network.
Jassem Nasser, Chief Strategy Officer at Thuraya, said: “This partnership is an exciting opportunity to develop agile solutions for faster, more reliable collaborative search and rescue efforts. We have worked with governments, medical teams and NGOs worldwide to train aid workers and deploy communication systems effectively during times of crisis. Our commitment to the Crisis Connectivity Charter with ESOA (EMEA Satellite Operator’s Association), GVF (Global VSAT Forum), UN OCHA and the Emergency Communications Cluster enables response teams with quick and smooth access to satellite-based communications in disaster regions. In recent years especially, Thuraya’s network connectivity and our rapidly deployable mobile solutions have been crucial for urgent humanitarian work as well as extended monitoring of crises zones. They played a critical role during the Indonesian national search for Air Asia flight QZ 8501, the earthquakes in both Japan and Nepal and the West African Ebola outbreak. We continue to collaborate with various NGO- and government-coordinated efforts on safety, search and rescue missions.”
And Roy Chen, Vice President of Government and Public Utility Sector, Huawei Enterprise Business Group, said: “Huawei is delighted to partner with Thuraya to innovate in the area of crisis and disaster management. Leveraging industry-leading ICT solutions and an ever-growing collaborative public safety ecosystem, Huawei, together with Thuraya, aims to improve government emergency departments’ practical capabilities, based on advanced satellite network, ensuring uninterrupted service, better protects human lives and properties from disasters and helps people take preventive measures.”
Developed with 18 partners, Huawei’s Collaborative-C4ISR Public Safety Solution featured at INTERPOL 2017, which includes a collaborative command and control center (C-Command & Control); collaborative communications network (C-Communication); collaborative cloud platform (C-Cloud),) collaborative video cloud platform; and a collaborative IoT platform (C-Reconnaissance).
