Cyclone Nargis still haunts Myanmar. With a wall of wave as high as 16 feet at 135 miles per hour, the sea had unleashed its fury across the Irrawaddy Delta on May 2, 2008. Nearly 140,000 lives were perished and 2.4 million displaced people lost everything. It destroyed 450,000 homes, damaged 350,000 others, flooded 600,000 hectares of agricultural land and ruined 60% of farming implements. About 75% of hospitals and clinics in the area were destroyed or badly damaged.
Disasters are unstoppable. Early warning systems and preventative measures, however, significantly minimize the loss of life, as it did in Bangladesh this month. The then regime of Myanmar was criticized for poor forecasting of Nargis and inefficient post-disaster relief operations. A functional communication system was the missing link. Now the authorities, with the help of Japan, have taken bold steps to fortify its emergency communications networks. And being a “green field” – the best possible solutions have been planned to deploy nationwide.
The communications infrastructure built under this plan consists of a high-speed, high-capacity core optical transmission network capable of transmitting 30Gbps between the cities of Yangon, Mandalay and Naypyidaw, as well as LTE, fixed-line telephones and optical transmission networks capable of 10Gbps internet transmissions within each city.
This infrastructure will support the simultaneous use of services for approximately 40,000 LTE subscribers, roughly 1.5 million fixed-line telephone users and about 1 million internet subscribers. LTE communications systems will also be supported by 50 LTE base-stations deployed within the three cities.
Full report is here.
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