SkyPort & Cisco To The Rescue

SkyPort Global Communications has signed a contract with Cisco Systems Inc. to provide satellite connectivity for Cisco’s Emergency Response Networks (ERN) service. Cisco’s ERN service provides emergency voice, video, and Internet connectivity for first responders during disasters where terrestrial communication is unavailable or disrupted. Cisco maintains two mobile command and control centers on the east and west coasts of the United States. These centers can be deployed to a disaster site at a moment’s notice to become a command center for personnel managing the response to the disaster.




This contract culminates two years of work by Cisco and SkyPort to develop a highly efficient, reliable satellite backhaul network to provide this crucial service. When in use, the command centers will transmit and receive voice, data and video communications using satellites linked through SkyPort’s teleport and network operations center in Houston. Each of the two ERN mobile command centers are equipped with the latest Cisco technology, including the company’s high-definition video conferencing solution, Telepresence. In addition, each command center uses Cisco’s IP Interoperability Collaboration System (IPICS) to provide radio interoperability for emergency first responders. The IPICS software, embedded in routers and other parts of the network, creates a single communications platform out of radio, IP, and non-IP networks, such as landlines and mobile emergency service radio technologies—Houston, Texas