We all know that the mobile communication is becoming more and more important part of our life with each passing day. Especially, in the case of disaster situations mobile services are important to coordinate and organize the relief efforts in the affected areas. But what if the existing mobile infrastructure in the area is already damaged? Well Vodafone Foundation has come up with an innovative solution to the problem. It has designed a portable mobile network weighing only 11 kg and is of the size of a backpack.
The mobile network will have voice, as well as, SMS capability. Furthermore, it can be taken by helicopter or plane to the disaster stricken area and deployed within just 10 minutes by a person with little technical know how. Infact, the network operates as the normal 2G base station of the host network. But in case that host network is not available due to some calamity, it uses to the satellite to connect to the host network. Afterwards, it starts working just like a normal base station in 2-3 minutes. The network provides coverage to a cellular region having a radius of 100m. It is able to support five simultaneous calls at a time.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdLEzdO9FS4[/youtube]
In Fact, before the launch of Instant Network Mini, Vodafone had partner with Huawei and Telecoms Sans Frontier to make a bigger version called Instant Network which was be carried in four briefcases, weighed about 100kg and had the coverage radius of 5 km.