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Athonet and Protezione Civile have been shortlisted for the 'Oscars' of the Telecom Community. 

Athonet nominated for Global Mobile Awards 2013


06.02.2013 -

Athonet, in cooperation with the Italian Civil Protection FVG, has been shortlisted for the Global Mobile Awards 2013 in the category "Best Use of Mobile in Emergency or Humanitarian Situations". The nomination is in recognition of the Civil Protection's rapid deployment of LTE communications based on Athonet's PriMo solution during last year's earthquake disaster in Italy. This was the first application of LTE technology in a disaster area supporting Civil Protection emergency workers.

Athonet's PriMo solution is a complete, compact, distributed, high performance, transportable network solution supporting LTE, UMTS/HSPA, WiFi and CDMA. PriMo is the best choice for public safety, large enterprises, hospitals, campuses, smartgrids, regional or rural green-field operators and small cell deployments.

 

In May 2012, two major earthquakes occurred in Northern Italy, causing widespread damage and leaving 5000 people homeless. Telecommunication networks became a critical resource for public safety and civilians. However fixed and mobile networks were overloaded or damaged. The Italian Civil Protection immediately dispatched Athonet's PriMo rapid deployment equipment to one of the hardest hit areas in the town of Mirandola to provide mobile broadband access to civilians and emergency operations. In just few hours the Italian Civil Protection had installed the network, utilizing it for real-time fixed video surveillance, "wearable" mobile video and voice communications to/from field emergency personnel. Using LTE-WiFi routers, free WiFi access was provided to civilians who took shelter in tent camps for months.

 

PriMo is completely self-contained and, although interoperability is available, it requires no connectivity to external networks in order to operate. Its "IT-friendly" Mobile Core Network software, unique user control features and simplified management make it easy to deploy to provide critical broadband communications during emergencies. Therefore PriMo allows an emergency organization with basic IT skills to immediately create broadband mobile coverage granting local and global voice, data and video traffic using standard devices (LTE, 3G, WiFi) with full authentication and Quality of Service policies.

 

Karim El Malki, Athonet's CEO, stated "We are thrilled to be nominated for the prestigious Global Mobile Awards and all of us at Athonet are very proud to have given our contribution in support of emergency workers and those living in the disaster-struck areas of Northern Italy. PriMo has proven to be a reliable 24/7 solution for mission critical communications in a real disaster situation, handling 50 terabytes of video, voice and other data during 5 months of continuous use".

 

Marco Tessarotto, officer of Protezione Civile della Regione Autonoma Friuli Venezia Giulia, stated "The excellent results obtained during the earthquake emergency in Emilia Romagna are not accidental but are a result of the excellent cooperation between Protezione Civile della Regione Autonoma Friuli Venezia Giulia and Athonet, who have integrated their respective excellences in the fields of emergency management and telecommunications to develop and put into operation the first application based on broadband LTE technology in the field of Civil Protection and public safety, in support of the people displaced by the earthquake, emergency workers and volunteers providing help to the displaced population. Our experience on the field proves that LTE has a bright future for public safety and Civil Protection applications".

 

About Athonet

Athonet, an Italian high-tech company, was founded based on the vision that mobile data usage would increase dramatically, creating a burden on mobile operator networks that would affect the quality of consumer and in particular mission-critical business services.

Athonet believes that "the software is the network" and that mobile networks will be able to address growing capacity and coverage needs only by distributing and virtualizing mobile network functionality just as is happening on the Internet and in enterprise networks.

For this reason Athonet developed PriMo, a complete, compact, distributed, high performance, transportable network solution supporting LTE, UMTS/HSPA, WiFi and CDMA. PriMo is the best choice for public safety, large enterprises, hospitals, campuses, smartgrids, regional or rural green-field operators and small cell deployments.

 

 

About Protezione Civile Regione Autonoma Friuli Venezia Giulia

Protezione Civile della Regione Autonoma Friuli Venezia Giulia, established by the Regional Law No. 64 of 1986, is the Regional Authority in the field of civil protection. Its tasks are the prediction, the prevention of natural and man-made risks, the coordination of emergencies and the reconstruction and the restoration of normal conditions after the occurrence of a disaster. Protezione Civile manages monitoring natural risks and the procedure for alerting system in case of natural event or emergency. Protezione Civile della Regione Autonoma Friuli Venezia Giulia is part of the national system of Civil Protection. Protezione Civile della Regione Autonoma Friuli Venezia Giulia has a proven history of technological research and participation in scientific projects directed to the improvement and/or development of novel solutions to be used during civil protection emergencies.