Telia Norway and Norwegian People's Aid collaborate to test the use of portable mobile base stations to extend cellular coverage to areas where there otherwise wouldn't be any. This solution could enable Norwegian People's Aid crews to communicate effectively during important search and rescue missions, Telia Norway said in an announcement today.
Essential Communication in Emergencies
"The concept of light, mobile base stations was originally tested and developed together with the Norwegian Armed Forces, but we see that the same equipment is also of great value for other purposes, such as in search and rescue missions when there is often poor or no mobile coverage," Telia Norway explained.
Also Read: Telia Finland to Implement Programmable 5G Network for Sirius Transport Corridor Project
Collaboration for Coverage
Telia said the portable mobile base station being tested by Norwegian People's Aid Nesset in More and Romsdal county is connected to Telia's core network via low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellites and can be used to extend mobile coverage to areas where mobile networks have not been developed or to restore coverage in the event of an outage caused, for example, by extreme weather or a natural disaster.
"Our emergency area stretches from fjords to mountains, and from cities to deserted mountain areas, and we often operate in areas where there is neither coverage for emergency networks nor mobile phones. Then, this type of solution is absolutely essential, and the concept has so far delivered beyond all expectations," Norwegian People's Aid explained.
"In the long term, we can quickly and easily provide local communities with temporary mobile coverage if the regular mobile communication infrastructure fails," the humanitarian organisation that operates in more than 30 countries said.
Future Prospects
The official release noted that Telia is very satisfied with the results of the tests so far. The concept has been tested by Norwegian People's Aid since last summer, and their experience has been very positive.
Also Read: Telia Estonia to Expand Fiber Network to 9,000 Homes in 2024
"In addition, there are many other areas in which these portable mobile base stations could be used. We envision being able to offer the concept as a product in our coverage as a service portfolio for shorter- or longer-term assignments, and are already experiencing great interest from many potential customers," Telia Norway said.
