AirTouch and Duracell Provide Emergency Communications Assistance to Hurricane Recovery Effort in Honduras.IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 4, 1998-- United Nations Legal Assessor to Deliver More Than $32,000 in Disaster Aid to Honduran Capital Tomorrow In response to the Hurricane Mitch Hurricane Mitch was one of the deadliest and most powerful hurricanes on record in the Atlantic basin, with maximum sustained winds of 180 mph (290 km/h). The storm was the thirteenth tropical storm, ninth hurricane, and third major hurricane of the 1998 Atlantic disaster, AirTouch Cellular Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, and Duracell Inc. Friday announced they are donating more than $32,000 in telecommunications equipment to the relief effort in Honduras. Transported as the personal luggage of Eduardo Trochez, legal assessor for the United Nations, the equipment will arrive in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, tomorrow evening. AirTouch is providing 450 Motorola MicroTAC The Motorola MicroTAC (otherwise known as MicroTac, Micro-Tac, MicroT.A.C, misspelt MicroTec or simply , Microtac (no capitalization for TAC in both cases) is a cellular phone first manufactured as an analog phone in 1989. cellular phones that will be used by relief organizations to communicate, allowing them to order and distribute relief supplies, bring in food for victims, organize search parties, order clean up equipment and secure necessities. The wireless phones are equipped with Duracell Ultra Refillable Alkaline Battery Alkaline batteries are a type of power cell dependent upon the reaction between zinc and manganese dioxide (Zn/MnO2). Compared with original zinc-carbon batteries, while both produce approximately 1. Packs, which offer an instant, reliable power source that does not need recharging. Each refillable battery pack will provide relief workers with up to 240 minutes of talk time. AirTouch coordinated the transportation of the equipment with Mission del Caribe, a non-profit organization A non-profit organization (abbreviated "NPO", also "non-profit" or "not-for-profit") is a legally constituted organization whose primary objective is to support or to actively engage in activities of public or private interest without any commercial or monetary profit purposes. providing relief efforts to Honduras. The phones will be delivered to the Tegucigalpa Chamber of Commerce, and then will be distributed within Honduras to the organizations managing the recovery efforts. CELTEL, the Honduran cellular provider, will provide free airtime to the relief agencies that use the phones and will help them get connected to CELTEL's special emergency service program. AirTouch coordinated the donation with Duracell and assembled the phones within days of the flooding, but was challenged with finding a way to transport the equipment to Central America Central America, narrow, southernmost region (c.202,200 sq mi/523,698 sq km) of North America, linked to South America at Colombia. It separates the Caribbean from the Pacific. . "The disaster relief in Honduras requires a tremendous amount of coordination and communication," said Nancy Hobbs, executive vice president and general manager, AirTouch Cellular. "Fortunately, our cellular network is compatible with CELTEL's wireless system in Honduras. This means we can provide equipment that will immediately meet the communications needs of the people who are putting their lives on the line during this crisis." AirTouch serves over 7 million U.S. cellular U.S. Cellular (NYSE: USM) is a super-regional cellular telephone provider, serving 5.8 million customers in 189 markets in 26 U.S. states. The company was created in 1983 as a subsidiary of Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. Since April 2000, John E. customers and operates in 22 of the top 30 U.S. markets, including Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. , San Francisco, San Diego, Atlanta, Detroit, Cleveland, San Jose, Sacramento, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Seattle, Portland, Ore., Denver, Phoenix, and Minneapolis. AirTouch Communications is the largest wireless company in the world based on the total number of customers served by its ventures. AirTouch owns interests in cellular, paging, and personal communications services See PCS. in the United States and 12 other nations as well as an interest in the Globalstar satellite system. AirTouch ventures serve over 35 million total customers worldwide (over 16 million based on its ownership share of its global ventures). Duracell Inc. is a subsidiary of The Gillette Company and has headquarters in Bethel, Conn. Duracell is the world's leading manufacturer and marketer of high-performance alkaline batteries. Duracell also markets primary lithium and zinc air batteries and rechargeable nickel-metal hydride batteries. Duracell batteries are sold throughout the world, primarily under the Duracell trademark. |
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