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Military comes home by videoconference thanks to MIVNET

MIVNET (www.MIVNET.com) is using VC technology to reunite military personnel in Iraq with their families here in the US. The MIVNET sponsored project, dubbed "Operation Roll Call", seeks to enlist the participation of MIVNET members across the country.

CV Solutions (http://www.cvsolutions.biz), a MIVNET member in the Florida Panhandle, connected the first three MIVNET sponsored calls.

"I received an e-mail from Mark Levy saying, "make this happen!" We had wanted to do this all along when this opportunity fell into our laps," says Sonja McDowell, director of videoconferencing, CV Solutions.

The First Call

McDowell contacted the Old Town GuestHouse (www.Oldtown-Guesthouse.com) in Colorado Springs where Mark Levy had already made room arrangements for the first call.

"I told them I would be providing the gateway service," says McDowell. CVSolutions bridged the call and MIVNET sponsored the gateway.

The call was made between Capt. Matthew Buck in Iraq and his wife Susan Buck and their three sons, pictured here, on September 19th.

McDowell dialed into each site and watched the call for technical anomalies. "Being in Iraq, the calls are coming through satellite. You can lose the connection. If it disconnects, we immediately hook them back up so they can complete the call," says McDowell.

The Bucks got to meet and trade "I love you"s for about an hour.

Calling Kansas

In another MIVNET sponsored call, military wife Brenda Meerkatz and sons visited with husband and father Lance Meerkatz, also stationed in Iraq. MIVNET members in Memphis arranged the conference room in Overland Park, Kansas.

During the call, the Meerkatz' two-year-old sang and danced around while the five-year-old filled Dad in about Kindergarten and his Soccer games. "It was great to see Lance's face," says Mrs. Meerkatz. "It was only 25 miles from my home," she adds. "The quality of the call was great and it was all free to us."

These are the kinds of blessings a privately funded network like MIVNET can produce.

Working Together

MIVNET is working with FreedomCalls (www.freedomcalls.org), a non-profit foundation, for the connection to Iraq. FreedomCalls offers free video calls between Army personnel and their families in the US.

"We have a satellite network that terminates here in Connecticut and connects into three separate camps in Iraq. These are point-to-point satellite links; there is no Internet infrastructure in Iraq," says John Harlow, co-founder and executive director, FreedomCalls.

The foundation is using the MIVNET directory to locate US videoconference rooms for the domestic part of the call and MIVNET is chipping in.

"If FreedomCalls is unsuccessful in getting charges waived by a public room videoconference provider, venue, gateway or bridge, MIVNET, through its worldwide membership, may at its discretion sponsor the event for the family and their military counterparts serving in Iraq," says Mark Levy, president, MIVNET, a private organization funded by member dues, Boca Raton.

The Benefits of MIVNET

MIVNET offers room location services with no agents, brokers or hidden fees as well as discounted business-class facilities, enhanced network services, conference coordination and Internet broadcasting and archiving.

The room locator offers global, graphical map-based search as well as search by city, province, state, country and zip code.

MIVNET videoconference provider members receive placement in an on-line directory through which they can network with each other as well as other benefits and services.

"I meet other MIVNET members through the on-line directory. I still use it everyday, looking for VC rooms all over the place. I depend on other MIVNET members, too. When I can't find something, I ask if they've heard of anything in their area," says McDowell.