A growing number of Japanese companies are adopting a satellite-based emergency backup communications system so they can continue some of their key operations in the event of a major earthquake or other terrestrial disruption.
The move gained momentum after JSAT Corp., the nation's largest communications satellite operator, began offering a bargain-rate fixed-fee service called SAO -- short for Shared but Always On -- last fall.
Kobe Steel Ltd., a major steelmaker whose mills took a hammering in 1995 from the Great Hanshin Earthquake, became in April one of the first companies to adopt SAO, according to JSAT.