Motorola Israel president Elisha Yanai recently met Minister of Communications Moshe Kahlon and raised the idea of building a national emergency communications network. Yanai said that such a network was essential in view of the lessons of past wars and what was happening in the world on this issue.
Kahlon agreed to review the matter, and discuss with the Ministry of Communications' professional echelons.
The importance of establishing a national emergency communications network is underscored by concerns about damage to infrastructures in the event of a missile attack on Israel. The network would mainly use wireless communications, although some models propose a landline network.
Yanai presented the concept of a WiMAX-based network capable of providing wireless broadband communications for use by security forces during an emergency.
Such a network usually uses antennas with switching capability; i.e. the base station functions as a switch without the need for a connection to central switchboards, such as the ones used by regular network. If the central switchboard is damaged, the emergency network would not crash, and the communications between the sites would not be interrupted.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 27, 2009
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