Asian Telecom Carriers Mobilize After Quake, Tsunami Disaster

Carriers work to restore service and are providing free calls to people affected.

Martyn Williams, IDG News Service

Asian telecommunications carriers are mobilizing to help people affected by the weekend's devastating earthquakes off Indonesia and by the subsequent tsunami waves.

In affected areas, carriers are rushing to restore service to customers and are setting up call centers from which people can place calls at no cost. In Thailand, for example, CAT Telecom Public is offering tourists free international calls and Internet access from help centers and from Donmuang Airport in Bangkok, the carrier said.

Sri Lanka Telecom has restored service to some areas of that country. Approximately 10,000 lines remain out of service in the Hambamtota area due to damage at the telephone exchange, however, and the situation of the Tangall exchange is under assessment, the carrier said. The carrier has sent staff into affected areas to provide emergency telecom service to customers from locations such as police stations and hospitals, it said.

Rebates Available

Australia's Telstra said that some of its customers will be eligible for rebates on calls related to the disaster. Australian nongovernmental and nonprofit organizations providing support in the area will be eligible for a rebate on Telstra fixed, mobile, and Internet costs for all communications between Australia and the affected countries. The rebate will apply to costs incurred for one month after December 26.

Telstra also said that it will offer rebates to customers in Australia who use its fixed or mobile services between noon AEDT on December 26 and midnight AEDT on December 30 to check on immediate family members who are traveling or living in the affected areas. Telstra mobile phone customers who are roaming in these areas and who use their cell phones to call relatives in Australia during the same period will be eligible for rebates, too.

Sri Lankan carriers are using signals from roaming cell phones to provide help for tourists, according to a report from Agence France-Presse. Carriers said that 10,252 phones were roaming on Sri Lanka's networks when the tsunami struck, and that SMS (Short Message Service) messages were sent to all the handsets detailing a number to call for help.

After the tsunami, 4269 of the roaming phones were used to make at least one call while the other phones went dead, AFP reported.