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Digital Planet: Tonga internet satellite kit deployed

Factual: Science & Nature

tonga-CROP.jpg

08/02/2022 GMT

Tonga internet satellite kit deployed

BBC World Service - Digital Planet, Tonga internet satellite kit deployed

Tonga internet satellite kit from TSF is out of quarantine and ready to be deployed.

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Tonga internet satellite kit from TSF is deployed. Also, could NFT protect our health data? And the latest in enhanced audio description for TV and films.

Télécoms Sans Frontières has sent satellite kits to Tonga to improve connectivity on the islands following the volcanic eruption.  Before the pandemic TSF would have immediately deployed to Tonga after it went dark, but strict quarantine rules limit what they can do. As their engineers can’t go out, they’ve had to adapt the equipment they send so that it can be set up on the island.  Their kit is now out of quarantine and should be deployed imminently and will eventually bring internet connectivity to the smaller islands where people are still completely cut off.  TSF Regional Manager Sebastien Latouille also tells us in the podcast about their latest deployment to Madagascar following Cyclone Batsirai.

Could NFT protect our health data?
If you think NFT’s (non-fungible tokens) are just the new way to buy art then think again as they could be the way to secure our medical data.  Once our medical information is digitised into an electronic health record we have no control over what is done with it.  Writing in the journal Science, Prof Kristin Konstick-Quenet, suggests that NFTs could provide a way to secure ownership over the management of digital information using blockchain technology.  However, will the companies who currently monetise our medical records be willing to give up access to it?  Legislation will be necessary if we are to have any control over our own health data.  

Enhanced Audio Description
Reporter Fern Lulham begins her first in a series of reports into the latest disability tech looking at audio descriptions of films and TV shows. There's plenty of evidence to show that despite the draw of social media and endless other activities, watching telly or going to the cinema remain extremely popular. In the UK for example, figures tell us that even before the pandemic, people spent an average of just over three hours a day watching TV,  And since the mid -80s, visits to the cinema had risen quite dramatically to well over 150 million a year before Covid19 restrictions kicked in. But how accessible are these media if you're blind or visually impaired?

The programme is presented by Gareth Mitchell with expert commentary from Ghislaine Boddington.

Studio Manager: Bob Nettles
Producer: Ania Lichtarowicz

(Image: Aftermath of volcanic eruption and Tsunami in Tonga. Credit: Malau Media/via Reuters)

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