Upgrades to better Internet services downrange

[unhappycamper]

Upgrades to better Internet services downrange
By Charlie Coon, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Wednesday, April 16, 2008

STUTTGART, Germany — The number of public Internet sites on U.S. bases in Iraq and Afghanistan will increase during the next six months from 610 to 850, according to a Stuttgart- based contracting team.

DRS Technologies’ European office, which is managing the project, is also increasing bandwidth at the bases to speed up Internet and phone service.

A 75-person team, most of whom work in Iraq, is also planning to place phone banks at passenger terminals, put wireless phones in hospitals for bedside calls and install hot spots on bases for laptop users.

The goal is to make telephone and Web connections for deployed personnel more like it is when they are home, said Glen Collins, senior program manager for DRS’ global communications division.

“It’s to make sure when soldiers get in line and get to a telephone they would always get a dial tone,” Collins said. “If there was insufficient space capacity over satellite … soldiers couldn’t connect, their calls wouldn’t go through or the call would drop out, which is even more frustrating.

Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=54079