It’s 1997 in Beirut, a devastated place just recovering from the Civil War. I can see Syrian gun posts from the barely open Marriott Hotel window. At the end of our customer's street was a cross-road, no traffic lights, but another gun turret. I bet no one drove too fast through there!
Our challenge is to connect the customer head office "downtown" to the airport in order to transfer data about incoming shipments to the customer's head office systems.
Of course, there is no mobile network, and there is often no electricity. The solution: Range Rover Net. A fleet of Range Rovers to drive through the city rubble, pick up data stored in the form of a diskette from the airport, and drive it the 10 KM to head office. Talk about resilience!
A couple of years later we make a major upgrade. Now there is mobile communication so it should be easy right? No, because the airport warehouse resembles an underground dungeon under the airport, about 30 feet down. No signal there for sure. The solution: a wi-fi areal on a long cable pushed through the drainage system and poking out at ground level from the drain grating in the gutter. Was it legal? I have no idea, but better not to ask, and it worked for another couple of years. The system was in constant use and even survived the 2006 Lebanon War, although that closed the airport completely for a few months. Now that’s resilience!
Finally, the airport was re-opened, and the "installation" was moved again to a more normal office location. Over the years, stable mobile communications and internet services became normal. Eventually the customer moved into new offices at the airport.
It is so sad to see what happened there on 4th August 2020 when a massive explosion rocked this city. My thoughts are always with the many friends I made there, and I know that their strength and ingenuity will eventually overcome the suffering that so many must have experienced.