Telecom to credit landline calls to Japan
Telecom has today announced it will credit all residential customers’ landline calls to Japan. This includes calls made from landline to landline and landline to Japanese mobile phones.
The credit will apply to calls made from midday Friday 11 March, to midnight Sunday 13 March, and will be applied to customers’ accounts in their next billing.
Alan Gourdie, Telecom Retail CEO, said it was important for people to be able to communicate with family and friends in a time of crisis.
“As we have recently experienced a severe earthquake in our own country, we know only too well how essential it is for people to be able to connect easily with loved ones in the immediate aftermath of a tragedy. Telecom is therefore crediting all landline calling to Japan for the two days following the disaster,” said Mr Gourdie.
Telecom is also assisting members of New Zealand’s Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) team who are using Telecom mobiles in Japan.
Roaming credit will be applied so USAR team members can stay connected with family and friends in New Zealand while they assist in Japan’s recovery effort.
Japan’s telecommunication networks remain under strain following Friday’s earthquake and tsunami, so people should be patient and keep their calls short where possible, particularly when calling Japan’s worst affected areas.
Internet services affected by Japan quake (Malaysia)
Internet services in Malaysia have been affected by the massive earthquake in Japan, according to reports, citing the top executive at fixed-line and broadband internet operator Telekom Malaysia Bhd.
According to Chief Executive Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa, the company will do its utmost to improve Internet services after the Japan-US Cable Network, or JUCN, and the Asia Pacific Cable Network 2, or APCN2, were both affected by last Friday’s 8.9-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Japan.
APCN2 is a submarine telecommunications cable linking several countries in the Asia-Pacific region, while the JUCN links the US and Japan.
As per Zamzamzairani, the JUCN cable network is still down, while Telekom Malaysia was able to move some traffic on ACPN2 to another restoration path, but that has caused slow browsing during peak hours. They will try their best to divert traffic to other routes to reduce and restore the customer experience.
Digicel Haiti gets additional spectrum to boost relief work
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: In a bid to boosts up the relief work in tragedy hit Haiti, Digicel Haiti, country’s largest mobile network operator by subscribers has been granted an additional 10MHz of GSM wireless spectrum for a twelve-month period by Haitian telecoms regulator Conatel.
The move aims at easing network congestion in the repercussion of the disastrous earthquake on January 12. According to Digicel, 92% of its 900MHz base stations were fully operational with the remaining 8% of rooftop sites destroyed by the earthquake being replaced with mobile cell sites.
While some of them have already been deployed, the remainder scheduled to be commissioned in the coming weeks.
Haiti tragedy: Extra spectrum granted to cellco to help relief efforts
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Comcel (Voila), a local mobile operator in Haiti has been granted 12MHz of additional spectrum in the 850MHz band by Haitian telecoms regulator Conatel. The decision was taken to support the relief work in the wake of the devastating earthquake on January 12.
The extra spectrum was crucial as networks were being stretched to the limit with the surge in traffic.
According to Stewart Sherriff, CTO with Voila’s US-based parent Trilogy International, the 12MHz granted by the government will aid enormously in relieving the congestion they had in the network.
Currently, Voila has 47MHz (2×23.5MHz) in the 850MHz band, whilst just a small 2×1.5MHz block remains set aside for emergency purposes.
Network restoration carried out in Haiti by Digicel
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: 30% of base stations of Digicel Group in Haiti which remained out of action are under the restoration process. However, congestion is still a problem while making and receiving international calls.
Haiti suffered a massive earthquake a few days back which resulted in a huge scale destruction the country.
According to the company, USD5 of free call credit has been provided to each of its two million-plus customers in Haiti.
Haiti to receive emergency GSM network from Ericsson
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Ericsson has been requested by the United Nations to deploy its Ericsson Response organization to aid relief work in earthquake-stricken Haiti. Four out of 20 volunteers on stand-by will be sent to set up a container-based mini GSM-system to enable mobile communication in the area. All the volunteers are telecom experts.
UN transportation will be used to send personnel and equipment. According to Rima Qureshi, head of Ericsson Response, aid workers can get their work done faster if they can provide them with the tools to get quickly in touch with the outside world, each other and those most affected by the emergency.
Formed in 2000 with a conviction to provide telecommunication expertise during disasters, Ericsson Response also supported relief work in Congo, Sudan, Indonesia and Philippines in 2009.
Cingular Wireless Responds to Earthquake in Hawaii
HONOLULU, Oct. 16 /PRNewswire/ — Cingular Wireless said today that it has restored service to 98 percent of its cell sites in Hawaii following the earthquake there on Sunday and expects the remaining sites to be operational shortly. All Cingular stores in the state are open for business and serving customers.
Cingular conducts ongoing readiness drills throughout the year and has a rigorous emergency preparedness and response process in place for events like this earthquake.
“Our primary goal is to fully restore service as quickly as possible,” said Tammi Terrell, vice president and general manager for Cingular in Hawaii. “When a natural disaster occurs, our dedicated network team works around the clock to ensure that happens.”
In addition to delivering back-up generators and batteries to cell sites where needed, Cingular is deploying a COW (cellular on wheels), a portable wireless facility, to the Big Island of Hawaii where a cell site was damaged by the earthquake.
Cingular offers consumers these tips to help stay in touch during an emergency:
- Try text messaging, or SMS (Short Messaging Service). Most wireless
phones today are text-messaging capable, and often times during an
emergency situation such as an earthquake, text messages will go
through more quickly than voice calls. More importantly, using text
messaging helps free up the voice lines for emergency officials.
– Keep non-emergency calls to a minimum. Keep lines open for emergency
personnel. Remember to limit your calls to the most important ones.
Chances are, many people will be attempting to place wireless calls to
loved ones, friends and business associates. If the landline phones are
not working, this probability increases.
– Wait 10 seconds before redialing a call. On many wireless phones, to
redial a number, you simply push “send” after you’ve ended a call to
redial the previous number. If you do this too quickly, the data from
the phone to the cell sites does not have enough time to clear before
you’ve resent the same data and may contribute to network congestion.
– Use your wireless phone to access news information. Many homes lose
power during earthquakes and severe weather. If you have a wireless
phone that provides access to the Internet, you can watch or read the
latest news at your favorite news link or keep track of the weather on
the Weather Channel through Cingular’s MEdiaNet service.
– If you have a camera phone, take, store and send photos of damaged
property to your insurance company from your wireless device.
– Use a landline phone if it is available. In many instances, landline
service may still be available in your area so this still may be an
option.
Source- http://biz.yahoo.com
