Re: Yet-to-be-patented technology
"This is PR nonsense"
Exactly. They may have the equipment ready to deploy, but until then it's still in development and not fully tested. Let's see what happens after a disaster and how awesome their coverage was, and how many emergency cat videos were successfully transmitted out of harms way, then we'll know this was not PR nonsense. If they have systems that can outfox Mother Nature, deploy and conquer, THEN announce your victory!
Back in the olden days™ of "hardwired" telephones (here in the US) the emergency services that they could provide revolved around how many hours the batteries can keep the central office running, and the 20% trunking problem; there was only enough "telephone bandwidth" available for 20% of subscribers at any one time. Anything above that number of "Ings" trying to initial calls is met with something other than a dial-tone. That's why they tell people "not to call unless you really have an emergency," because calling your grandma to check on her cat ties up the available bandwidth. Anyway, as long as the telephone lines between you, the CO, and the emergency services people were in service, you were a phone call away from help.
Nowadays, most people are on the cell network and do not have a land line. There should be much more available voice bandwidth, and you'll soon be able to text your emergency services, or Tweet them, anything is possible. I should be able to send a "help me!" GIF to my local police and have them answer that. So, it makes sense to prop up a suitable, modern version of begin able to call for help during an emergency. How well it works is anyone's guess, but I suspect they will give it their all, and hopefully their choice of temporary infrastructure will serve its purpose. Fail or succeed, it will make a great news item. :)