Smart taps schools for disaster monitoring via mobile

By Lawrence Casiraya - INQUIRER.net
CEBU CITY -- Mobile operator Smart Communications is tapping universities to become part of a nationwide monitoring network for natural disasters such as earthquakes and typhoons.

In particular, Smart wants to tap partner schools under the Smart Wireless Engineering Education Program (SWEEP) initiative, which trains teachers from these schools on mobile and networking technologies.

“We want to involve these schools into a nationwide network of disaster monitoring systems,” said Mar Tamayo, head of Smart’s network services division, during the company's annual SWEEP competition held here.

Tamayo was referring to the development of such systems by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PhiVolcs), which is under the Department of Science and Technology.

Engineering faculty from the SWEEP partner schools met with PhiVolcs officials last October and presented proposals for low-cost “intensity meters” for monitoring earthquakes using GPS (global positioning system) technology.

Each school also gave updates on their respective disaster monitoring initiatives while agreeing to use these earthquake intensity meters in their respective schools.

Using wireless technology for disaster preparedness is the theme of this year’s SWEEP competition among schools. The winning school receives P500,000.

Smart's SWEEP competition is now on its fourth year. Mon Isberto, Smart’s public affairs spokesperson, said succeeding contests will focus more on wireless broadband areas and go beyond simpler GSM applications especially SMS or texting.

Report says GSM subscribers worldwide now 2.54B

By Erwin Oliva - INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines -- There are more than two billion people now subscribed to GSM mobile networks, a report released by an association of mobile network suppliers and vendors said.

GSM, short for Global System for Mobile Communications, is now a dominant mobile network standard used worldwide by telecommunications service providers. The standard has evolved, bringing faster and more sophisticated innovations that support not only voice but video and other multimedia applications.

There are now over 2.54 billion GSM subscribers, including those subscribed to 3G networks using the wideband-CDMA standard, as of the second quarter of 2007, according to the recent market research a report released by the Global Mobile Suppliers Association, a group of global GSM technology suppliers, citing data from Informa Telecoms and Media.

The report also noted that there were at least 564 million new GSM subscribers added during the second quarter of this year.

The Asia Pacific region recorded the highest number of GSM subscribers, which includes WCDMA networks at one billion, followed by Western Europe at 500 million.

China and India had a combined growth of 11.2 million additional subscribers on a monthly average during the first half of 2007, the report said.

The same report said that the annual growth of GSM subscribers in the Asia Pacific region is now at 33 percent. The report also said 62 million people in Asia Pacific are subscribed to a WCDMA network, which is a 3G or third generation mobile network.

Meanwhile, the deployment of 3G networks and faster versions of it will drive broadband services in the world. There are now 178 commercial operators of 3G networks in 78 countries using the WCDMA standard, the report said.