Communications Risks & Opportunities

Mines can be hazardous environments and the possibility of fire, flood, explosion and collapse has the potential to simultaneously affect a large number of people. Providing effective communications at all times is one factor in ensuring safety standards are not compromised. Furthermore, reliable mobile coverage across the site also enables staff to support their own general health and safety.

Communications solutions deployed in remote mining locations need to provide both a cost effective way to ensure on-site staff have good quality communications access throughout the site and to deliver a solution avoiding wastage of facilities being provided when not needed with related ongoing maintenance and support costs.

It is immediately apparent that a fixed handset based communications system is going to be both limiting in scope and an expensive deployment of little used assets with ongoing maintenance and licensing costs. A macro GSM network is unlikely to have the network coverage required at remote locations and a DECT or PMR system is unable to deliver the reliability and coverage needed at remote and hazardous locations.

Discover more about Providing GSM Coverage and our Rapid Deployment Unit.

Private Mobile Networks

Private Mobile Networks (PMN) provide a cost efficient and technically proven solution already deployed extensively in Europe, Middle East and Africa and used by service personnel at hazardous locations. Based on GSM technology, the solution is well proven and reliable, offering a 3-5 fold increase on the coverage available from DECT or PMR. Using standard mobile phone handsets is highly cost efficient and means that on-site personnel can use their own handsets once registered to the PMN. Using the same handset on the local PMN while on-site and on the macro GSM network when returning to coverage areas allows users to use their own contact lists and mobile applications.

Pico cells are installed to provide low power GSM coverage throughout the site as required. Each Pico cell is connected to a local IP network. As an alternative to a fixed site installation, a Pico cell can be provided as part of a self-contained Rapid Deployment Unit or Rapid Deployment Vehicle.

Discover more about our Private Mobile Networks and Rapid Deployment Unit products.

Features & Benefits