The Korean government has built the world’s first LTE-supported natural disaster communications network that will be introduced this year. The network will enable faster analysis and responses as it supports transmission of pictures, videos, and voice.
Unveiling the network on, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety said it rolled out the first stage of its pilot program. The natural disaster communications network is used by the police, the fire department and local governments to communicate information regarding natural disasters. Each institution had used different networks such radios with very high frequency or ultra high frequency.
Now, with the new consolidated network in place, the state institutions will be able to exchange pictures and videos of disasters each other.
Devices such as radios and smartphones will be used for communications. The LTE-supported network can connect up to thousands of people including policemen and fire fighters at the scene as well as the police, the fire situation room, district headquarters and fire stations through a conference call.
“The network has two layers, which means we can still communicate even though there is a failure in one network,” said an official from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety. “The government will use the new network to provide various services such as drone footage of disasters and monitoring with the Internet of Things.”