Sprint Provides Cellular and GPS Services to FEMA for its Nationwide Vehicle Tracking Program
Written by Sprint
Tuesday, 22 September 2009
Nextel handsets equipped with TeleNav Track GPS services offer FEMA ease of deployment and cost reductions for their emergency communications
OVERLAND PARK, Kan.-The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), a division of the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is relying on Sprint (NYSE:S) to
provide 2,000 Nextel handsets in support of FEMAs nationwide vehicle
tracking system. As part of an agreement signed earlier this year,
Sprint is providing handsets equipped with industry-leading Nextel
Direct Connect® and TeleNav Track, a cell phone-based GPS
navigation and tracking service. This powerful combination of
technologies allows the agency do its job efficiently during an
emergency by supporting quick deployment and effective management of its
critical resources. The ability to set up anywhere and at any time is
crucial for FEMA, especially when the agency is called upon to provide
disaster support.
Several hundred of the 2,000 Motorola i365 phones are being used by FEMA
employees and the rest are on standby and staged throughout the country,
ready to deploy in case of an emergency. For example, units have been
staged in the Gulf Coast region throughout the hurricane season. All
phones are prepackaged in a FEMA kit - a rugged pelican case that
includes the handset, a car charger, a wall charger, a splitter and two
batteries.
In addition to the devices, the Sprint solution also includes
integration and project management services to ensure that the agency
met its deadlines for setting up the vehicle tracking program before the
hurricane season. After receiving the initial request, Sprint and
TeleNav rapidly set up the entire program, including device
configuration and testing.
Interoperable communications and emergency preparedness have always
been top priorities for Sprint, especially in wake of some of the recent
natural and man-made disasters. Whether its the reliability of our
network or support from the Sprint Emergency Response Team (ERT), we
have always been ahead of our competition in supporting our customers
including the federal agencies tasked with disaster preparedness and
recovery, said Bill White, vice president, Federal Programs at Sprint.
We take pride in serving FEMA with our voice and data services powered
by Sprints Now Network.
While Nextel Direct Connect allows instant and seamless communication
among FEMA personnel and interoperable communications with first
responder and law enforcement agencies, TeleNav Track allows FEMA to
monitor in near real-time the location of its mission-critical
resources, including ambulances, buses and trucks. With geo-fencing,
authorized FEMA personnel can also receive alerts if a tracked unit
travels outside or inside a defined geographic boundary. A key enabler
of this solution is the rugged Motorola i365 handset with an embedded
GPS location system and advanced operating system. The Motorola
operating system includes features which automatically run the TeleNav
Track application in the background on power-up, eliminating the need
for any user interaction and preventing unauthorized changes to the
application.
Sprint, whose Now Network was recently named most reliable 3G network in
a 13-city test by PC World, serves FEMA through its newly formed
Business Markets Group (BMG). Composed of more than 4,000 sales,
support, marketing and operations personnel, Sprints BMG is dedicated
solely to enterprise, general business and public sector customers. BMG
delivers wireless, wireline and converged solutions for companies,
drawing on the nations most dependable 3G mobile broadband network,* 4G
capabilities that are well ahead of Sprints competition, the fastest
national push-to-talk network,** and a comprehensive solutions portfolio
of devices and applications.
Sprint offers the following hurricane
preparedness tips, pandemic
flu tips for businesses and consumers. To learn more, click on this link to watch a Sprint executive speaking about Sprints pandemic planning
and preparations tips for businesses and general consumers.
For more information on Sprint business solutions, visit www.sprint.com/business or contact your Sprint account team. For more information on Sprint ERT,
visit www.sprint.com/ert
*Dependable based on independent, third-party drive tests
for 3G data connection success, session reliability and signal strength
for the 50 most populous markets, January 2008 February 2009.Not
all services available on 3G and coverage may default to separate
network when 3G unavailable.
**Fastest based on initial call set-up time.
ABOUT SPRINT NEXTEL
Sprint Nextel offers a comprehensive range of wireless and wireline
communications services bringing the freedom of mobility to consumers,
businesses and government users. Sprint Nextel is widely recognized for
developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including
two wireless networks serving almost 49 million customers at the end of
the second quarter of 2009; industry-leading mobile data services;
instant national and international push-to-talk capabilities; and a
global Tier 1 Internet backbone. The companys customer-focused strategy
has led to improved first call resolution and customer care satisfaction
scores. For more information, visit www.sprint.com.
ABOUT TELENAV
TeleNav, Inc., a privately-held company headquartered in Sunnyvale,
California, was the first to launch a cell
phone GPS system in the United States. Deployed by 14 carriers in 29
countries, TeleNav is a global leader in wireless location-based
services (LBS). Currently, the companys solutions are available in four
continents, including North and South America, Asia and Europe.
TeleNavs solutions include GPS navigation, Mobile Resource Management
(MRM), social networking and local search. The companys flagship
service, TeleNav
GPS Navigator, offers functionalities comparable to in-car systems
and standalone navigation devices, such as automatically-updated maps
and business locations, full-color 3D moving maps, traffic alerts with
one-click rerouting, location-sharing, business reviews, speech
recognition, Wi-Fi hotspot finder, gas price finder and more. TeleNav
also delivers its award-winning navigation service on the TeleNav
Shotgun, a standalone GPS personal navigation device (PND) tailored
specifically for business travelers. TeleNavs enterprise application, TeleNav
Track, incorporates GPS-enabled tracking, time sheets, wireless
forms and navigation. TeleNav Track is a widely adopted service with
approximately 9,000 customer organizations using it today.
TeleNav services are available on more than 500 wireless devices and run
on most major mobile platforms currently available.
For more information on TeleNav, please visit www.telenav.com.
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