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11/21/2024 05:18:06 pm

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Nepal Strives To Restore Phone And Internet Services To Reconnect To The World

Nepal Earthquake

(Photo : REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar) Rescue team member from Nepal, Turkey and china works during the rescue operation to rescue live victims trapped inside the collapsed hotel after an earthquake in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Nepal, struck again with a 7.3 magnitude earthquake last Tuesday, has been striving for rehabilitation of the devastation that killed more than 7,000 of its population.

The restoration of Nepal will probably take several years to achieve but telecommunications and web companies are now rushing to resume their operations for the benefit of the country to reconnect to the world, according to The Business Times.

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The most essential aspect of any humanitarian response is the opportunity for rescue team and aid workers to have access to internet or phone lines in Nepal.

Phone lines will have a tendency to be congested in times of disaster, so the urgent action of restoring communication and providing an alternative in Nepal will serve as an advantage.

Telecommunication experts from various countries gathered in Kathmandu, Nepal last April to devise measures on how a phone network can respond to future disasters.

"Although we knew the risk for Kathmandu Valley was very high, we never expected it would be too soon," said Kyla Reid, head of disaster response in GSM Association.

The World Food Programme, a branch of United Nations that promotes food assistance, already launched their innovative kit on improving the means of communication for both residents and the rescue team.

The World Food Programme has collaborated with the Luxembourg government, Ericsson and the NGO company Nethope, in developing mobile antennas that are small enough to be portable on a commercial flight.

"They look like beach balls," said Mariko Hall, employee of World Food Programme.

Hall described the mobile data antennas as "inflatable, light and quick to deploy."

The mobile antenna mimics the function of a wifi network, providing an accessible internet connection in the most remote areas where signal is weak.

The rescue teams can gather and update data with this innovative technology, thus promoting a faster system particularly in logistics.

A member in the rescue team can now update locations in Nepal where extensive damage has occurred.

Despite the high magnitude of the two succeeding Nepal earthquakes, the phone network maintained its function, according to Henrik Westman, head of TeliaSonera, Nepal Telecom's sister company. Westman further added that 300 sites had problems after Tuesday's earthquake in Nepal but this was more related to power supply.

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