The SARS files: how telcos got Asia through the worst of the crisis - Cover Story

Telecom Asia, June, 2003 by Robert Clark

Asia's advanced telecom networks prevented a complete shutdown of the region's economy during the crisis of the last three months. Cellphones and videoconferencing allowed quarantined patients and medical workers to keep in touch with their families, while the number of teleworkers soared. But telcos had pressing problems of their own, as they fought to keep their operations running in the face of rising infections.

April 1, 2003: Panic seizes Hong Kong after the Ming Pao Web site reports the city has been declared an infected port, chief executive Tung Chee-hwa has resigned and the Hang Seng index has collapsed.

Shoppers rush supermarkets and thousands look for a fast passage out of the city before the report is discovered to be false, placed on a Web site allegedly tricked out by a 14-year-old boy. The Hong Kong government sends an unprecedented mass SMS to 6 million cellular users to reassure them that the port has not been closed.

The telecom industry has not escaped the impact of SARS, which has cut a swathe through China and southeast Asia in the past three months. Motorola was forced to close a main[and Chinese plant, hundreds of telco staff went into quarantine, travel bans were improved and major industry events were delayed or canceled.

Yet the recurring theme in the region's battle against the killer virus is the role of modern communications technologies and Asia's telcos.

It is only through the availability of broadband Internet, email, corporate VPNs and cellular mobile that the region has been able to continue functioning. Pre-Internet, Asia's economies would have all but come to a standstill.

The Net and the mobile phone have played critical roles in the unfolding drama. Medical researchers are using the Internet in the largest ever online collaboration to track down a disease. Quarantined patients and hospital workers have kept in touch with their families through mobile phones and video conferencing. A Hong Kong online forum, www.sosick.org, set up by locals to identify the location and spread of SARS, attracted 100,000 visitors in a couple of days, forcing the Health Department to follow suit. Cellco Sunday established a location-based service identifying nearby SARS-infected buildings.

Users in the stricken areas turned to the Internet in a big way. According to Neilsen NetRatings, the number of new Hong Kong Internet users increased by 13% in April--the first double digit increase in more than two years.

For carriers, the SARS crisis period meant a steep rise in the use of video--and audioconferencing, broadband and IDD. It also saw a fall in demand for mobile.

But the impact wasn't just economic. As one of the biggest employers, and with the largest customer-facing operations of any industry, telcos were in the frontline of dealing with the human side of the disease.

PCCW saw four confirmed SARS cases and sent home 12% of its workforce, while China Netcom in Beijing had to quarantine off one of its paging centers (see story "The battle within", p.19).

The SARS crisis today appears to be under control. But the uncertainty and scale of the crisis put Asia's corporate leaders under massive stress.

As infections mounted and increasing numbers of staff were quarantined telcos were no different. Says PCCW CO0 Mike Butcher: "If we could have got more information more quickly more accurately, at least I could have felt that we knew what we were doing."

Tele-Aid

"Let's unite in the fight against SARS: wear masks, wash hands. Don't worry, be happy"

It's not the snappiest message, but the meaning of canned SMS, offered by operator SmarTone, is clear. Likewise, all Hong Kongers recognize Ah Chong ("The Worm"), the semi-mythical symbol of courage in adversity. An Ah Chong downloadable MMS (right) was one of a series of supportive MMS also offered by Smartone. The company donated 10% of the revenue from each SMS and MMS to the Hospital Authority Charity Fund.

The Hong Kong operator was not on its own. Around the region, telecom companies joined the community effort to help hospitals, health workers and patients.

In Hong Kong, Hutchison Global provided free video phones for patients and their families at two hospitals and supported a free helpline for medical advice to its sister company, drugstore chain Watsons.

PCCW offered videoconferencing at four hospitals, and set up free IDD, fax, Wi-Fi and Internet services at quarantine camps. It even set up a free storyline for children, who had been sent home from school, to call.

In Singapore, SingTel raised S$750,000 ($435,00) for the Courage Fund, which provides relief to those affected by the disease, and provided S$20,000 worth of mobile phones and SIM cards.

StarHub also gave to the Courage Fund, committing 1% of IDD revenue in May, and donated 1,200 mobile phones and 1,200 S$18 prepaid SIM cards to hospitals.

China Netcom in Beijing supported the local Sino-Japanese Friendship Hospital with videoconference equipment, while 30,000 middle and primary school students in Beijing, Shanxi and Shanghai signed up for its free online courses.