ITU hands over 55 satellite phones to Minister for disaster zone
By Ali Imran

ISLAMABAD—Minister for Information Technology, Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari on Friday lauded the help received and coming in from world agencies, particularly International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to restore and re-install telecommunication links in earthquake hit areas.
“Restoration of telecommunications links is extremely critical for supporting the disaster relief operations in the earthquake struck region and we are doing all we can with the help of world agencies to put these links back in place,” he said. He was talking to an ITU delegation led by Mr Tai Ogunderu who met the minister here to hand over 55 Inmarsats satellite phone sets to be used for communication in the quake-hit areas.
The Minister told the delegation earthquake had devastated an area of 20,000 sq. km in the country with thousands of people have died or injured. “Infrastructure of highways, link roads and telecommunication is vastly damaged but we are doing all we can with the help of international community to restore telecom links to step up relief operations and rehabilitation,” he said.
Awais said offers of help from the international telecommunication community were pouring in, and the SCO which is charged with providing communication services to the region, had been made the focal point for all such assistance. He said the Special Communication Organization (SCO) was doing a stellar job, but the private sector too could assist in such efforts by rolling out their operational networks as quickly as possible.
The immediate need is for communication equipment that can be run in remote areas where there may not even be any electricity, and hence satellite phones with ancillary solar powered batteries would be the most optimum choice, he added. He said the enormity of the task in front of us is such that we are glad to accept all offers of assistance, in particular for telecommunications services, since without information, it is next to impossible to coordinate the relief effort.
Awais told the delegation the World Economic Forum had also offered to deploy wireless based/satellite solution for restoring the telecom links in the quake-hit region. Shortly their experts will be visiting Pakistan to have feasibility and deployment of wireless based infrastructure, he said. The Minister noted with satisfaction generous response by the telecommunication industry in the country to the disaster, and the players to work together to prepare a coordinated response to the disaster.
“It is not just the financial contributions that the companies plan to make to the Emergency Relief Fund, but also what is needed is their technical expertise to deploy telecom solutions in the region,” he said.