14 DAY TRIAL // Despite the existence of various routers and switches that can connect a device or household to a network, actually deploying a network isn't an easy feat, not without a lot of equipment and people to help you.
Well, at least that was the situation until a short while ago. Vodafone, the Vodafone Foundation as it were, has managed to cram everything relevant in a single backpack.
That's right, the Vodafone Foundation has created a network in a backpack – a mobile network in a backpack, to be totally precise.
Which means that, instead of enabling the interconnection of PCs and mobile devices via LAN or the Internet, it allows people to use their mobile phones.
Vodafone calls the backpack Instant Network Mini and designed it with the purpose of enabling voice and SMS communications of small humanitarian field offices set up in disaster zones.
Say a tornado struck a village or city. The damage to the infrastructure, not to mention the loss of life, is rarely small when this happens.
So even if there were people who could call for help and relief, they might not have the means to do it, since they could have been destroyed.
The Instant Network Mini allows operators to set up networks in the field, because it links a 2G GSM base station to the host mobile network via a portable satellite unit.
First you link the Mini to the host mobile network, then you control it like you would any base station on the 2G network. The satellite and base station units get energy from an internal battery, but they can be linked to a generator, or even a car lighter (12V). If you lack any of these things, there is a solar panel that will replenish the battery charge, albeit more slowly.
Moreover, the Instant Network Mini can be set up without the need for technical know-how, since it only needs to be switched on by the operator once in the field. After all, the unit is configured to run with the host mobile network before it's actually deployed.
Once it's working, it only needs to be connected to a satellite antenna, after which a Picocell mobile network base station is connected to the backpack's power supply. After that, the network goes live in 2-3 minutes.
All this inside a package that weighs 11 kg / 24.3 lbs, which means it can be taken as hand luggage on commercial flights.
The Vodafone Instant Network Mini can host 5 calls at the same time as long as the phones are within 100 meters / 328 feet of it. Needless to say, it can send text messages too.
