31st January 2018
HISPASAT joined forces with Quantis, satellite subsidiary of Grupo Eurona, and Nexmachina, an equipment distributor, to install four open Wi-Fi points via satellite in As Neves, a town in Pontevedra.
HISPASAT, in collaboration with Quantis (satellite subsidiary of Grupo Eurona) and Nexmachina, an equipment distributor, has led the way in distributing an emergency connectivity service to those affected by the disruption in ground communications in As Neves, a town in Pontevedra, caused by the major forest fires in Galicia in October. At the beginning of November, four open Wi-Fi points via satellite were installed in this town and the service was activated, which continued to operate until the beginning of January when communications were finally restored.
The basic connectivity service offered included voice over IP, instant messaging and navigation without multimedia content services, and it was managed by Quantis with the capacity of the Hispasat 30W-5 satellite and equipment provided by HISPASAT and Nexmachina. The four Wi-Fi points installed in the urban centre of As Neves made it possible to offer an emergency solution for the primary communication needs of the town’s residents.
Likewise, following Hurricanes Irma and Maria, which devastated the Caribbean region, HISPASAT also granted satellite capacity to reinforce the local relief efforts that were carried out in the hardest-hit islands (Saint Martin, the British Virgin Islands, Anguilla and the Turks and Caicos Islands) and provide emergency communications to a combined population of 147,000 people. This service was provided from 13 September to 30 November 2017 in collaboration with iDirect, Cisco, Red52 and Digicel.
In catastrophic situations such as these, satellite technology is a key instrument for offering connectivity solutions, helping emergency teams and helping re-establish communications, since it allows for quick deployment, it is independent of land-based infrastructure and it is not affected by natural disasters.
