28 July, 2020, Pau, France: Télécoms Sans Frontières and Inmarsat, the world leader in global, mobile satellite communications today celebrate 20 years of partnership providing essential first response communications in disaster relief worldwide.

Télécoms Sans Frontières (TSF) is the world’s first non-governmental organisation (NGO) focusing on emergency-response technologies. During humanitarian crises TSF provides people touched by tragedy the possibility to contact their loved ones and begin to regain control of their lives. TSF also builds rapid-response communications centres for local and international responders.

Since its creation, TSF has responded to over 140 crises in more than 70 countries, providing communication means to over 20 million people and nearly 1,000 NGOs. Whether storms, earthquakes, floods or massive population displacements, TSF is often first on the scene, enabling coordination of relief efforts and restoring contact to victims of disasters worldwide.

Jean-François Cazenave, President of TSF, says: “ Back in 2000 the partnership with Inmarsat allowed us to turn what was at that time a group of passionate humanitarian professionals into a fully-fledged NGO. We are particularly proud of celebrating this 20^th anniversary, because the partnership with Inmarsat is a shining example of what partnerships mean for TSF. It’s of course about financial support, and providing us the means to assist the most vulnerable, but it goes far beyond this. All of this is grounded in solid human relationships with people who understood from the very first moment our vision and our values and who are always willing to go the extra mile to support them. It is rooted in a shared commitment to use technologies to give a voice to those silenced by any kind of humanitarian crisis.”

As part of its global community outreach and support, Inmarsat has provided technology, hardware and connectivity to TSF for its crucial work. In 2000, Inmarsat became the very first official partner of TSF, understanding its mission to bring communications to the hundreds of thousands of people who have been cut off and isolated from the world through natural disasters and conflicts. Inmarsat’s commitment, as well as its equipment and technology, is essential for TSF’s work – allowing the NGO’s dedicated personnel to arrive in the field and set up the latest in satellite communications technology immediately following a disaster.

Within a matter of minutes, connections to Inmarsat’s Global Xpress, broadband global area networks (BGANs) and IsatPhone 2 are deployed to provide priority humanitarian telephone calls for the affected population and to generate vital communications coordination centres for fellow NGOs, United Nations agencies, governments and local institutions on the ground. It is in the first hours following a disaster that the most lives can be saved and Inmarsat’s longstanding support is an essential element to allow TSF to do this.

Alison Horrocks, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Inmarsat said “ The partnership between Télécoms Sans Frontières and Inmarsat is a long and valuable one, helping countless people around the globe. We are honoured to be able to celebrate 20 years with such a dedicated partner. Our founding mission was to save lives at sea and it is rewarding for our teams to know that we continue to do so while also growing that commitment to saving lives on land with TSF as well. Inmarsat enables the connected world and it is difficult to imagine a better use of our technology than how it is used to support TSF and their missions .”

For more information on the partnership and how it began visit https://www.inmarsat.com/blog/tsf-partnership.