When a major disaster takes down the phone system, who ya gonna call? An emergency communications system developed by Maryland start-up TeleContinuity might provide a solution.

The “survivable” emergency telephone system back-up network would keep people, companies and government agencies in touch during disasters by seamlessly merging conventional phone lines and the Internet with a technique called “shoelacing.”

The initial version of the software would reroute a user’s phone service within minutes by delivering the call to a remote phone, mobile or even a computer or PDA.

By the end of the project in the Spring of 2005, the company plans to develop an enhanced version of the software that allows administrators and users to monitor and control networks in an emergency with advanced Web-based controls.

From Innovations Report.