Telcos Responds to Natural, Human-Made Disasters
Fourteen telcos joined forces to create a Virtual Command Center (VCC) for Disaster Recovery, alleviating the damages of natural and human-made disasters.
In recent years, climate change has intensified natural disasters like wildfires, floods, and storms. According to the United Nations, these calamities have been disproportionately affecting poorer countries. Several telcos decided to alleviate their impact.
Stronger Together
The TM Forum’s Catalysts program brings together industry members to co-create new and innovative solutions for challenges like better 5G and improving customer service with AI. This year, several telecommunications companies have united their expertise and resources to develop the VCC platform. They share the commitment to leverage technology for societal good, specifically when it comes to natural and human-made disasters. The list includes:
- Antel (Uruguay/Telecom),
- Celfocus (Portugal/Telecom),
- Chunghwa Telecom (Taiwan/Telecom),
- Cognizant (U.S./IT Services),
- ESRI (U.S./Geographic Information System),
- Futurewei (U.S. subsidiary of Huawei/Information and Communications Technology),
- Infosim (Germany/Software and IT Solutions),
- Intersec (France/Data Analytics),
- MTN (South Africa/Telecom),
- NTT (Japanese/Telecom),
- Orange (France/Telecom),
- TIM (Italy/Telecom),
- Ubiqube (France/IT Automation and Orchestration),
- and Verizon (U.S./ Telecom).
Sébastien Synold, Product Manager at Intersec, shared his excitement, stating “Our mission-critical communication solutions now cover 400 million people in 18 countries. We are honored and excited to apply our experience in crisis management to further bolster safety and security within communities.”
VCC Against Human Disasters
The VCC platform integrates state-of-the-art technologies such as autonomous networks, artificial intelligence, and digital twins. These technologies provide emergency services with continuous access to essential data, significantly speeding up response times.
The platform’s design streamlines operations and optimizes resource allocation during emergencies. In turn, this enhances situational awareness and ensures consistent decision-making processes.
The group will be showcasing the VCC for Disaster Recovery at the upcoming TM Forum’s Digital Transformation World Ignite 24 (DTW24) conference in Copenhagen from June 18 to 20, 2024. The conference focuses on the future of the telecommunications sector, covering topics like AI-driven innovation, autonomous networks, and modernizing IT for the telecom industry
The consortium is also vying for an innovation award in the Tech for Good category. After all, they are coming together to prove the telecom sector’s societal impact and humanitarian value through its technological advancements, especially regarding natural and human-made disasters.
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