Climate Resilient Internet, LLC (CRi) yesterday announced what it says is the world’s first internet service, certified for resilience to the extremes of climate change. The company said they are alerting business and policy leaders about internet vulnerability and advancing new best practices to confront the crisis of longer and more costly blackouts.
The problem is, according to the company, despite the proliferation of wireless—all data ultimately reaches the internet by fiber optic cable, buried underground or strung across telephone poles. Most of the infrastructure was installed in the 1990’s, and with all of it ground-based and vulnerable to wide scale weather events and power disruptions, CRi asserts that only an aerial solution affords the necessary resilience where losing the internet is not an option.
CRi was founded by Steven Kelly and David Theodore. Kelly also founded Timberline Communications, a wireless construction firm, and said he has supported major carriers through decades of hurricanes, blizzards and two terror attacks. Theodore is a veteran of the wireless internet business and has developed “fixed wireless” solutions for home and business service delivered by ISPs and carriers worldwide.
“We founded CRi to raise awareness to the impact of climate change on the internet and to advance new best practices as a matter of corporate responsibility and public policy,” said CEO Steven Kelly. David Theodore, the company’s CTO, added, “The internet isn’t so complicated, and neither is the vulnerability problem. We’re repurposing existing technology around a new standard, certified for climate resilience. Our approach complements fiber infrastructure, like data lifeboats, to protect an organization’s most critical data.”
Wireless Internet Service Providers Association President/CEO Claude Aiken said, “On behalf of our 900 members that provide broadband access to millions of business customers, we view climate change and extreme weather as a major issue and threat to our telecom infrastructure and our customers. We applaud Climate Resilient Internet for raising this important issue and for taking the initiative to develop best practices that deserve the attention of the entire WISP community and all industries that rely on data.”
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