Globalstar Phones Are Lifelines For Brazilian Rescue Workers

SPACEMART

Motorists push their cars through floodwaters in Recife in northeast Brazil, 01 August 2000. Flooding caused by heavy rains in the area has left 24 people dead and 2,000 homeless in the Pernambuco and Alagoas provinces. Photo by Helio Scheppa - Copyright AFP 2000

New York, September 5, 2000
Last month, the Globalstar system supported the efforts to conduct search-and-rescue operations and to provide aid to thousands of victims of floods in Brazil, providing urgently needed communications service in areas of the country where all other telecommunications services had been knocked out, and in areas where no alternative telephone systems were available.

In early August, Globalstarďż˝s Brazilian service provider, Globalstar do Brasil, delivered sixteen Globalstar mobile satellite phones to government and search and rescue officials in the northeastern states of Pernambuco and Alagoas. These states, which had no previous telecommunications services, or had lost services due to the devastating floods and mudslides, had weathered five days of storms which killed at least 50 people and forced 120,000 to abandon their homes. These storms were the worst to hit the region in over 25 years.

According to Brazilian Air Force Major Paulo Wladimir Rodrigues, who led the governmentďż˝s rescue operations, Globalstar phones were the only way to reach most of the areas that were suddenly isolated when bridges and roads were destroyed by rising waters. The rescue teams used the phones to coordinate the delivery of vital medicine, food, water and clothes via military helicopters. Rodrigues added that the Globalstar phones provided portable, easy-to-use communications service that was integral to the governmentďż˝s relief operations, and thanked Globalstar do Brasil for providing the phones.

SPACEMART

Globalstar Begins Russian Service

Moscow (Interfax) July 30, 2000
The Globalstar satellite communications system is set to go into commercial operation in Russia at the end of July.

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