Next Stop, the Andes

Once I selected a product and network vendor, it was time to test-drive the unit. I boarded a plane bound for Lima, Peru, with my compact loaner, a six-pound Nera WorldCommunicator GAN/M4 satellite terminal with a fold-out antenna that was capable of 64kbps digital connections. In Lima, I spent some time at our field office testing the device via the Inmarsat satellite over Brazil. I set up the antenna at the WWF office and conducted several tests, including tracing routes to various U.S. computers to determine connection stability. Additional tests included access to public websites and access to WWF applications and data via secure Citrix sessions. The terminal and service worked perfectly during the preliminary tests, and the Citrix session running on my laptop never dropped the connection through the satellite uplink.

I drove from Lima to a pristine mountain pass in the Andes called Ticlio. The son of the WWF finance and administration manager from the Lima office, a native Peruvian, escorted me on the three-hour trip, just in case I ran into trouble. The air at 16,000 feet was crisp. Light winds moved the cloud cover both below and above me. Nearby, children played soccer. As I unpacked the satellite gear, I noticed a Peruvian mother carrying her infant in a shoulder sling. It was humbling to see her moving so easily as I struggled to get accustomed to the altitude. I felt lightheaded and nauseated. I even had difficulty reading the signal strength meter on the terminal as I attempted to find the right location for the satellite. I finally found the satellite and locked in my connection from the Nera terminal. Within minutes, I was accessing our corporate network in Washington, D.C., and sending e-mails with sizable data file attachments from the top of the Andes. The terminal proved reliable even with a 700ms per hop delay via the satellite connection. After the 45-minute test, I was satisfied that the equipment and service would be reliable and add value to the WWF mission. I packed up the gear, and we headed back down to Lima, passing a number of poor mountain villages and tapped-out mining communities along the way.

Several WWF staff members have since taken the equipment I purchased from Telenor into the field to support our environmental work. Recent trips to remote locations have shown that our team is able to utilize the terminal and GAN/M4 network for both reliable voice and data transmissions. WWF staff members have been successful in establishing reliable 64kbps digital data connections and variable bandwidth voice connections from the field. WWF has also recently added satellite-based handheld phones to its satellite solutions for staff who simply need voice capabilities in a small device. The staff has successfully uploaded files to our Web team from remote locations like Nepal’s Royal Chitwan National Park and the Terai Arc, which includes 12 million remote acres spanning Nepal and parts of India. Some of the world’s most endangered wild animals, including tigers, rhinos and elephants, roam the Terai Arc. WWF and its partners are attempting to restore and reconnect 11 national parks in Nepal and India to create one continuous landscape and corridor that will allow such wildlife to flourish. Our team of environmental professionals are now adequately equipped to meet the diverse needs of voice and data communications from nearly any location on the planet.