[SatNews] SES S.A. (NYSE Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG) as one of the private partners in emergency.lu, is providing vital connectivity services following the disastrous earthquake in Nepal that damaged the country’s telecommunications infrastructure in the most severely affected region between Katmandu and Pokhara.

The 7.8 magnitude earthquake, which hit on Saturday, April 25, and its aftershocks, have already claimed more than 5,500 lives and rescue efforts are intensifying. Communication services offered by emergency.lu provide connectivity to humanitarian responders in Nepal and are being deployed in close collaboration with the Emergency Telecommunications Cluster led by the World Food Program.

One Rapid deployment kit is already on the ground and operational. Two additional kits are being redirected to Nepal from Vanuatu, where one kit remains in operation and continues to provide connectivity until the local infrastructure is restored on Tanna Island. All kits are providing reliable connectivity using the SES satellite network.

“When a natural disaster such as the earthquake in Nepal hits, telecom landlines and terrestrial wireless systems are inevitably destroyed, or overloaded by people sourcing help and information or trying to contact relatives,” said Gerhard Bethscheider, Managing Director of SES Techcom Services. “Satellite is the only infrastructure which enables communications networks to be restored quickly, facilitating the roll-out of coordinated humanitarian assistance and aid in this mountainous region.”  

emergency.lu is a public-private partnership between the Luxembourg government and three Luxembourg-based companies. These companies, SES Techcom Services, Hitec Luxembourg and Luxembourg Air Ambulance, design and operate the platform. Emergency.lu uses dedicated SES satellite capacity and ground infrastructure to re-establish communications networks in support of humanitarian relief operations.