Solar Storms May Affect Mobile Device Connectivity

As we have seen in recent weeks, solar flares which send massive bursts of charged particles from the Sun toward the Earth have the potential to disrupt power grids, GPS systems, satellites and even airline flights. With our ever increasing reliance on mobile devices like iphones and android smart phones and tablets, the data connectivity with the mobile devices is also at risk according to TAAP, a leading provider of mobile apps and software solutions.

The company has warned that mobile software applications which operate purely via the internet as opposed to directly on the device, may not function in the event of extreme weather systems.

According to a statement from TAAP, many of our mobile devices and applications are at risk since many of them are not ‘true’ applications that operate offline. Instead a large number of apps actually need an internet connection in order to download/view/transfer data. TAAP warns that companies that extreme weather occurrences could mean that entire field service departments, marketers, and mobile workers, are unable to use their software applications.

To provide a solution which is not impacted by such events, TAAP provides software applications which work directly on the device, and only use an internet connection to upload and download data. According to the company, through this method, information can still be captured and saved to the device in situations where poor connectivity occurs. This means that workers can continue to operate as normal if they use mobile applications to perform daily tasks.

“By providing software applications which work offline, for PDAs and tablets, TAAP enables its customers to be productive even if they lose their connection to internet services,” said Steve Higgon, Product Architect for TAAP. “There are numerous reasons for poor connectivity, so it’s important for organisations which rely on mobile systems to run their daily operations to have a back-up plan in place if their internet services are intermittent, when they are travelling or working out of the office.”

In a statement TAAP officials went on to offer that offline services can also be made available for access to third party data such as postcode checker and bank checker, which some of TAAP’s longstanding not-for-profit/charity clients are now taking advantage of, to ensure that supporter data can still be validated in areas or buildings where there is no internet connection. These offline services can be used by any customer wishing to validate an address or verify that a bank account and sort code combination exists, without connecting to the internet.