Norwegian People’s Aid tests portable mobile base stations from Telia
In collaboration with Telia, Norwegian People’s Aid – a humanitarian organization that operates in more than 30 countries, but in Norway focuses on first aid and search and rescue missions, in addition to refugee and inclusion work – is testing the use of portable mobile base stations to extend cellular coverage to areas where there otherwise wouldn’t be any. Among other things, this solution could enable Norwegian People’s Aid crews to communicate effectively during important search and rescue missions, as Jon Christian Hillestad, head of enterprise at Telia Norway, explains.
“Telia has collaborated with Norwegian People’s Aid for a long time on various communication solutions, and we think it’s great fun to adopt new technology together,” Hillestad says. “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.”
The portable mobile base station that Norwegian People’s Aid Nesset, one of the organizations’s local branches, is testing in Møre og Romsdal county, is connected to Telia’s core network via low-Earth-orbit 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. In such cases, communication could make the difference between life and death, as Kristoffer Christiansen, an operational manager at Norwegian People’s Aid based in Nesset, explains.
“In recent years, we at Norwegian People’s Aid Nesset have worked purposefully to develop ourselves in order to be able to face future events in a good way – both in the emergency phase, as a rescue resource, and as a support resource during long-term incidents for agencies, municipalities and counties,” Christiansen says. “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 Nesset is also responsible for an area in Møre og Romsdal that is home to many small communities and villages located in narrow fjords or between high mountains. These areas are particularly at risk from extreme weather events and natural disasters that may interrupt mobile phone coverage.
“In the long term, we can quickly and easily provide local communities with temporary mobile coverage if the regular mobile communication infrastructure fails,” Christiansen says.
Telia is also very satisfied with the results of the tests so far, according to Henning Huuse, a 5G business development manager at Telia Norway.
“The concept has been tested by Norwegian People’s Aid since last summer, and their experience has been very positive,” Huuse says. “The mobile networks are already used to search for missing persons and, with the extended coverage that this concept provides, the chances of these people being found will increase even further.
“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.”
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