RED CROSS WANTS SCALABLE PARTNERSHIPS WITH CARRIERS

摘要

The American Red Cross (ARC) wants to partner with carriers on scaling issues to produce contracts or other agreements that allow the disaster relief agency to enlarge its network capacity significantly during disasters and then shrink it as the threat subsides. Speaking Tues. at the e-Gov Institute抯 Wireless/RFID Conference, Ron McKenzie, ARC senior dir.- wireless services, said following disasters like Hurricane Katrina, in which unorthodox agreements were necessary to maintain communications, ARC is establishing a 損laybook?that lays out contingencies and resources for partnering with wireless, wireline and even data companies. He said the nonprofit wants to move past the era of 搊ne infrastructure for episodic times, one infrastructure for non-episodic times?into a period where the existing network can flex to fit the size of the disaster