Hans-Georg Michna
Guest
|
 Posted:
Wed Dec 29, 2004 11:56 pm Post subject:
Mobile phones save stranded Britons, Hong Kong workers in Sr |
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Mobile phones save stranded Britons, Hong Kong workers in Sri
Lanka
Tue Dec 28,10:44 AM ET
COLOMBO (AFP) - Thirty six stranded British tourists were
rescued in Sri Lanka thanks to a mobile phone with one of them
and technology that could pin-point the user, an official
involved in the rescue told AFP.
The Britons were picked up from the southern beach resort of
Hikkaduwa where they were stranded after the tsunami lashed
three-quarters of the island's coastline, killing nearly 13,000
people.
A private initiative involving all phone companies here began
monitoring mobile phones with international roaming and traced
the call patterns to figure out the location of the phone users.
"There were 10,252 international roaming phones working on Sri
Lankan networks at the time of the tragedy," Chris Dharmakirti,
who is heading the Tidal Wave Rescue Centre said. "We sent
everyone an sms and got responses from 2,321.
He said 5,983 roaming phones had gone dead since the disaster
while 4,269 phones had been used to make at least one call after
the tragedy.
"Whenever anyone used the phone, we could track where the person
was and restrict our search to affected areas of the country."
"If a phone is dead it could be that the unit is lost or the
person is affected by the tragedy," Dharmakirti said. "But, we
are keeping a track on these numbers."
He said they sent instructions to the phone users to call a
toll-free local number that will be answered by a call centre
manned by some 100 people.
"Last night we had a response from a British tourist and based
on tracking his call we were able to locate a total of 36
stranded Britons," Dharmakirti said. "Four of them were
critically wounded, but we managed to get to them to safety."
Another 35 Hong Kong-based employees of Morgan Stanley, leading
investment bankers, who were in southern Sri Lanka were tracked
down because of their international roaming phones that
continued to be switched on.
"Some people who called us did not know where they were. All
they could say was they were on high ground. But we were able to
pin-point from where the call was coming and could rush help,"
he said.
The mobile phone networks too were knocked out after Sunday's
tragedy, but 90 percent of the services were restored quickly by
arranging mobile generators to power base stations.
"This is the first time in Sri Lanka that we have used high tech
call tracking for a rescue mission. It has been highly
successful and the teenagers who manned the call centre were
themselves keen to go out and help victims," he said.
"What we are doing is to use this to help any survivor who is
marooned and needs help."
He said people abroad could call two numbers to get information
about survivors who made contact with the rescue centre. When
dialling from abroad, the number is +94-11-2395230 or
94-77-3166999.
From within the country, the number to dial is 011-2395227 or
from any mobile phone in the country the toll free number to
call is 112.
He said there was more information on the rescue centre website
www.travellanka.com.
--
No mail, please. |
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Burnie M
Guest
|
| Posted:
Thu Dec 30, 2004 2:36 am Post subject:
Re: Mobile phones save stranded Britons, Hong Kong workers i |
|
|
On Wed, 29 Dec 2004 19:56:23 +0100, Hans-Georg Michna
<hans-georgNoEmailPlease@michna.com> wrote:
| Quote: | Mobile phones save stranded Britons, Hong Kong workers in Sri
Lanka
Tue Dec 28,10:44 AM ET
COLOMBO (AFP) - Thirty six stranded British tourists were
rescued in Sri Lanka thanks to a mobile phone with one of them
and technology that could pin-point the user, an official
involved in the rescue told AFP.
The Britons were picked up from the southern beach resort of
Hikkaduwa where they were stranded after the tsunami lashed
three-quarters of the island's coastline, killing nearly 13,000
people.
A private initiative involving all phone companies here began
monitoring mobile phones with international roaming and traced
the call patterns to figure out the location of the phone users.
"There were 10,252 international roaming phones working on Sri
Lankan networks at the time of the tragedy," Chris Dharmakirti,
who is heading the Tidal Wave Rescue Centre said. "We sent
everyone an sms and got responses from 2,321.
He said 5,983 roaming phones had gone dead since the disaster
while 4,269 phones had been used to make at least one call after
the tragedy.
"Whenever anyone used the phone, we could track where the person
was and restrict our search to affected areas of the country."
"If a phone is dead it could be that the unit is lost or the
person is affected by the tragedy," Dharmakirti said. "But, we
are keeping a track on these numbers."
He said they sent instructions to the phone users to call a
toll-free local number that will be answered by a call centre
manned by some 100 people.
"Last night we had a response from a British tourist and based
on tracking his call we were able to locate a total of 36
stranded Britons," Dharmakirti said. "Four of them were
critically wounded, but we managed to get to them to safety."
Another 35 Hong Kong-based employees of Morgan Stanley, leading
investment bankers, who were in southern Sri Lanka were tracked
down because of their international roaming phones that
continued to be switched on.
"Some people who called us did not know where they were. All
they could say was they were on high ground. But we were able to
pin-point from where the call was coming and could rush help,"
he said.
The mobile phone networks too were knocked out after Sunday's
tragedy, but 90 percent of the services were restored quickly by
arranging mobile generators to power base stations.
"This is the first time in Sri Lanka that we have used high tech
call tracking for a rescue mission. It has been highly
successful and the teenagers who manned the call centre were
themselves keen to go out and help victims," he said.
"What we are doing is to use this to help any survivor who is
marooned and needs help."
He said people abroad could call two numbers to get information
about survivors who made contact with the rescue centre. When
dialling from abroad, the number is +94-11-2395230 or
94-77-3166999.
From within the country, the number to dial is 011-2395227 or
from any mobile phone in the country the toll free number to
call is 112.
He said there was more information on the rescue centre website
www.travellanka.com.
|
Note the 112 is the international GSM emergency number and should only
be used for emergencies (not enquiries). |
|
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