A Canadian satellite company is sharing its services to help with disaster recovery efforts in Venezuela.
The news: Following disastrous earthquakes in northwestern and central Venezuela, Ottawa-based satellite firm Telesat announced on Thursday that it donated satellite capacity to local telecom company Top Comunications to help restore critical communications, emergency infrastructure, and public safety operations. Telesat said its subsidiary, Telesat GEO, is providing capacity from its Telstar 19 Vantage satellite, which covers broad swaths of the Atlantic as well as central and South America.
From the source: “There is often a feeling of helplessness when a natural disaster strikes a foreign country. This was an immediate and tangible way that we, alongside Top Comunications, could help the people of Venezuela—and therefore a very easy decision to make,” Dolores Martos, Telesat’s vice-president of sales for Latin America and the Caribbean, wrote in an email to BetaKit.
Following the thread: Two major earthquakes struck northwestern and central Venezuela on June 24, hitting major cities Caracas and La Guaira. Nearly 2,300 people were killed, according to Wednesday’s official death tolls from Venezuelan authorities, and almost 50,000 people are unaccounted for. Physical infrastructure was destroyed, and so was digital infrastructure, with internet access, power services, and telecom connectivity dropping sharply—making rescue efforts even harder.
Telesat said its satellite services are being used to deliver reliable internet connection to first responders and communities in the most affected areas. In a LinkedIn post, the company said Top Comunications is using the donated capacity to power free mobile Wi-Fi stations.
Final thought: More than increasing connectivity on the ground, satellite imagery is having another use in disaster aftermath: birds’-eye imaging. The Planetary Response Network out of Lancaster University in the UK is calling for volunteers to analyze satellite images to spot affected areas like broken bridges or obstructed roads. And Telesat isn’t the only private company harnessing satellite power to pitch in. Elon Musk’s Starlink is providing free internet service to customers in impacted areas of Venezuela through July 25.
Feature image courtesy Telesat.