Ensuring public safety through resilient satellite communications

Ensuring Public Safety

During emergencies or disasters, keeping communication channels open between emergency services, disaster responders and communities is crucial to preventing and reducing loss of human, social and economic impacts.

However, sometimes due to location or nature of the emergency or disaster, terrestrial networks, including mobile are either limited or completely unavailable, severely impacting coordination of emergency teams and public safety.

Satellite communications can overcome this barrier, providing secure, reliable, always-on connectivity that enables governments and public safety services to maintain command & control, situational awareness and continuity of operations in chaotic emergency situations.

In particular satellite communications can:

• support operations where terrestrial communications are absent or compromised;
• offer rapid deployment to emergency scenes with man-portable or vehicle communications;
• enable interconnection for widely distributed sites and interoperability for disparate networks;
• augment the coverage, capacity & resilience of land radio networks (cellular or PMR);

Over recent years, satellite communications have evolved to include a range of solutions such as voice, narrowband data, broadband data and over-the-top network services to fixed and mobile sites, all at varying qualities of service and price points.

Traditionally MSS systems have been deployed to serve first responders (individual personnel and vehicles) as essential communications tools, with the larger but more capable VSAT FSS systems being deployed at later stages as bandwidth requirements increase, more complex operational needs emerge, and the price premium for MSS becomes onerous.

However, L, C and Ku-band VSAT systems have often struggled to cope with the growing demands for data, data throughput, deployment time, mobility and affordability from public safety authorities.

Newer technology such as Avanti’s High Throughput Satellites (HTS) and its Ka-band technology, offers substantial operational advantages over legacy VSAT systems for public safety applications.

Avanti’s HYLAS satellite fleet exclusively utilises Ka-band HTS technology and we have extensive coverage across the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

We offer a range of reliable and resilient satellite services for fixed, deployable and mobile communications ensuring public safety and disaster response communications.

We are successfully providing satellite communications for two major public safety and disaster resilience projects.