It was well past midnight when Xiao Wang received a call from China Mobile staff in Sichuan with news she had been desperately waiting to hear. She burst into tears when the operator told her that her father, Wang Zhiyuan, had survived the worst earthquake to hit China in 30 years.

“Thank you so much for your help,” said the younger Wang, her voice cracking with relief.” My entire family has been so worried about him. I’ll tell everyone right now, our father is safe. I’m so grateful for your help.”

This was just one of hundreds of messages delivered by China Mobile employees who are staffing the company’s “I am safe!” hotline.

Dozens of China Mobile’s employees are working together to deliver ‘I am safe’ messages. Earthquake victims, in areas where mobile communication was cut, can scribble out a note and the phone number of a relative. China Mobile’s team then coordinates the delivery of the messages which were sent from the devastated areas by employees like Wang Gang and Wang Hui.

The two China Mobile technicians were sent to one of the worst hit areas of Sichuan Province as soon as the mobile network went down. One of their tasks is to send ‘I am safe’ messages to relatives outside the danger zone. But the Wang’s only have time to start to relay messages at night. During daylight hours they are busy repairing damaged base stations and making sure government rescue teams have full use of China Mobile’s satellite phones.

On the second night after the earthquake the Wang’s started relaying survivors’ messages using a satellite phone to China Mobile staff where mobile communication was not a problem. By midnight, the exhausted Wang’s had managed to send out 300 “I am safe” messages.

Other China Mobile staffers in safer areas worked around the clock relaying the messages they received from the Wang’s to the relieved distant relatives of the survivors.

The ‘I am safe’ hotline is just one part of China Mobile’s coordinated effort to ensure normal communications are restored while also serving people’s emergency needs.

As of May 15th China mobile had spent 300 million yuan on its rescue, recovery and repair work.

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