[sha2017-orga] What are "field phones" and who are "we"...?

[agh]

Hi all,

This summer the chaosvermittlung team will be joining forces with POC to provide the best (field phone) service yet on an event...
as a lot of you were wondering what the hell is a field phone and why do I want to have one if I already have a SIP/DECT phone we
decided to provide a little management summary in this email.

Field phones are battery powered telephones without a dialing pad connected to a central manual phone exchange.
To start your call you have to turn a crank on the side of the phone.
An operator will be alerted, answer your call and you can tell him/her which field phone or DECT/SIP number you want to reach.

Now as you know what field phones are you may still be wondering why do I want to have such a device for my OC or village.
As mentioned above the phones are battery powered and as we have seen on the CCCamp2015, power cuts can happen.
Therefore a power independent communication channel is a must have. Further more field phones are running on their own copper network
and service is not dependant on IP connectivity in contrast to the SIP desk phones.
We are also planning for a battery powered GSM uplink for outbound calling.

Because of those features we will be able to provide an emergency communication service interconnecting orga locations and e.g. evac points.

We hope we were able to explain what our project does and why you might want to reconsider your decision
on (not yet) having a field phone for your OC. Field phones for orga will be provided by us, but we need feedback for planning the network.
Hope to hear from you soon.
See you at SHA2017.
Still field phoning anyways...

Your chaosvermittlung
(subteam of POC)