Comms in a crisis

The resilience of communications is constantly tested during and after a major disaster. For this reason companies are creating innovative ways to ensure communication is maintained between the emergency services. Mobile communications have become integral to how emergency services respond to major incidents. The aftermath of the 2005 7/7 London terrorist bomb attacks saw mobile phone networks overloaded and network operators forced to initiate Access Overload Control (ACCOLC) to prioritise emergency calls. Unfortunately many key emergency personnel did not have ACCOLC-enabled mobile phones, and paramedics using SMS as part of the service's basic communications strategy could not get their messages through either.