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Sep. 21, 2009
TeleNav Press Release:
Sprint Provides Cellular and GPS Services to FEMA for its Nationwide Vehicle Tracking Program
Nextel handsets equipped with TeleNav Track™ GPS services offer FEMA ease of deployment and cost reductions for their emergency communications
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — Sept. 21, 2009 —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 FEMA’s 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 it’s 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 Sprint’s 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, Sprint’s BMG is dedicated solely to enterprise, general business and public sector customers. BMG delivers wireless, wireline and converged solutions for companies, drawing on the nation’s most dependable 3G mobile broadband network,* 4G capabilities that are well ahead of Sprint’s 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 Sprint’s 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.
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Media Contacts
Mary Beth Lowell
425-531-0122 phone
marybethl@telenav.com
Mark Burfeind
206-240-3970 phone
markb@telenav.com
Todd Witkemper
408-306-6677 phone
toddw@telenav.com
About TeleNav
TeleNav, Inc. is a leading provider of consumer location-based services (LBS), enterprise LBS and automotive LBS. TeleNav's solutions provide consumers, wireless service providers, enterprises and automakers with location-specific, real-time, personalized services such as GPS navigation, local search, mobile advertising, mobile commerce, location tracking and workflow automation. TeleNav's technology is available across more than 500 types of mobile phones, all major mobile phone operating systems and a broad range of wireless network protocols. TeleNav's service providers and partners include AT&T, Bell Mobility, Boost Mobile, China Mobile, Cincinnati Bell, Ford Motor Company, NII Holdings, Rogers, Sprint Nextel, Telcel, T-Mobile UK, T-Mobile USA, U.S. Cellular, Verizon Wireless and Vivo Brazil.
For more information on TeleNav, please visit www.telenav.com. Follow TeleNav on Twitter at www.twitter.com/telenav or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/telenav
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 company’s customer-focused strategy has led to improved first call resolution and customer care satisfaction scores. For more information, visit www.sprint.com.
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