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rSIM is the world’s first truly resilient and intelligent SIM card that monitors connectivity and actively switches profile for maximum uptime.

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rSIM’s One Priority: Keeping Emergency Services connected with Always-On connectivity.

Connectivity OutagesEmergency Services
30 Jan

When a crisis strikes, seconds make the difference between life and death. For emergency responders, paramedics, firefighters, police officers, and disaster relief teams, immediate access to reliable, uninterrupted connectivity can save lives. However, despite significant advances in mobile network technology, connectivity challenges persist, hampering real-time communication, precise position tracking, and coordination.

In both natural disasters and urban emergencies, reliable connectivity is essential for effective emergency responses. Yet, the complexity of modern networks makes delivering truly resilient, always-on connectivity is a real challenge. The recent LA wildfires highlighted this struggle, as communication infrastructure was destroyed, leaving responders without critical information. Efforts like Elon Musk’s deployment of Starlink terminals provided a lifeline, proving how vital innovative connectivity solutions are in ensuring responders can make the split-second decisions that save lives.

Studies have shown that efficient, uninterrupted communication systems can significantly improve emergency response times. For example, research from McKinsey highlights that adopting smart technologies can cut response times by 20–35%, while standardised communication systems in hospitals have been shown to reduce treatment delays by up to 39%.

Connectivity Challenges in Emergency Services

The nature of emergency services demands uninterrupted access to real-time data and communication channels. For first responders, mobile connectivity isn’t merely a convenience; it’s a lifeline. It enables dispatch centres, emergency medical teams, and police and fire units to share critical, life-saving information instantly.

Dispatch centres rely on connectivity to guide personnel to the scene or provide updates in real time. Without a stable connection, these critical updates can be delayed or lost entirely, putting both responders and victims at greater risk. Real-time GPS tracking is equally vital, allowing centres to locate the nearest units and navigate them around traffic. Solutions like Swift Navigation’s Skylark Precise Positioning Service deliver centimetre-level accuracy, but without connectivity, this precision can drop to tens or hundreds of metres, complicating response efforts. Similarly, safety solutions like Tended, who provide geofencing technology, wearables to help keep teams out of harm’s way, rely on real-time data to monitor workers’ locations and provide critical alerts. If connectivity fails, these alerts can’t be sent, leaving workers unaware of approaching dangers and at risk of catastrophic accidents.

In the real world, mobile connectivity often fails under pressure. Patchy networks, urban congestion, and the isolation of remote locations can all conspire to delay response times.

Maintaining reliable connectivity is crucial yet challenging for emergency services, as they often face connectivity issues that can hinder rapid response. These challenges typically arise in three areas:

Network Outages:

In the chaos of an emergency, a network outage can bring communication to a standstill. During recent storms like Storm Éowyn in January 2025, mobile network performance across Scotland, Ireland, and Northern Ireland was significantly impacted. Ookla reported a 78% drop in median mobile download speeds in Ireland and similar declines of 63% and 74% at the 10th percentile in Scotland and Northern Ireland. These declines were caused by widespread power outages and damage to telecom infrastructure, leaving responders and affected communities struggling to stay connected.

CSL observed rSIMs seamlessly switching profiles to ensure connectivity was maintained during the storm. With two profiles from independent mobile operators, rSIM provided a failover mechanism that kept devices online, even as primary networks struggled. This resilience demonstrates how rSIM can provide a lifeline during network outages, ensuring emergency teams stay connected and can continue their life-saving work without interruption.

High-Demand Events:

Major incidents, such as natural disasters or large-scale accidents, can overwhelm mobile networks as thousands of people attempt to connect simultaneously. This surge often results in slow speeds and dropped connections. In some cases, signalling storms, where too many devices attempt to connect to the network at once, can prevent devices from connecting entirely. rSIM addresses these challenges with two layers of resilience: roaming and fallback resilience. The first layer, roaming, allows devices to connect to multiple local networks, selecting the one with the best available performance. rSIM’s second layer, resilience, activates by falling back to an independent second mobile operator profile stored on the SIM. This dual-profile, dual-core approach gives responders the best possible chance of staying connected, even in the face of severe congestion and signalling storms.

Latency and Data Transmission Delays:

Delays in transmitting GPS locations, medical updates, or situational reports can mean the difference between saving a life or arriving too late. Imagine an ambulance en route to a critical patient losing access to live updates on traffic or hospital capacity, or a search-and-rescue team working without precise GPS coordinates. These are moments where connectivity failures can cost lives.

rSIM tackles this by continuously testing the active network connection for data transmission failures. If the connection fails, rSIM automatically switches to a backup profile from a completely different mobile operator, restoring reliable, real-time communication. This proactive resilience ensures dispatch centres and field teams always have the most accurate, up-to-date information to act decisively when it matters most.

 

Resilience Is the Future of Emergency Connectivity

The devastating impact of recent network outages highlights the urgency for resilient solutions. The Optus outage in Australia (2023) disrupted millions, leaving responders unable to coordinate rescue efforts. The AT&T outage in the U.S. (2024) even affected FirstNet, the dedicated first responder network, hampering critical communication. Similarly, the Rogers outage in Canada (2022) impacted over 12 million users, including emergency services. These incidents underline a stark reality: when connectivity fails, emergency response efforts are delayed, lives are endangered, and responders are left without the tools they need in critical moments.

For those on the front lines, the ability to communicate is essential. rSIM helps ensure that responders can stay connected when it matters most, providing the reliability needed to make critical decisions and act swiftly in the toughest conditions.

When everything is on the line, reliable connectivity makes all the difference. rSIM gives responders the connection they can depend on, ensuring they’re never alone in the moments that matter most.

Date Icon 30 January 2025