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At A Glance:
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The Challenge
Utility companies building pipelines in isolated locations require reliable connectivity for construction crews working across vast regions and centralized base teams, but existing land-based solutions suffer from coverage outages and signal fade in remote areas.
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The Solution
The local affiliate of Iridium partner Globalsat Group worked with an Argentinian natural gas transportation company to test and deploy a solution leveraging Iridium Push-To-Talk capabilities through interoperable equipment, allowing for field teams to utilize satellite connectivity with VHF radio and VoIP telephony were unavailable.
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The Impact
The customer was able to deploy its Iridium Connected® solution to the field extremely quickly, to allow maintenance crews to begin work on the pipeline segments almost immediately and without the incremental costs associated with building a land-based communications infrastructure.
- 1day to deploy
- 10,940kilometers of pipeline construction
- 35IC-SAT100 devices & docking stations used
The Challenge
Upon winning a bid to maintain and manage a new natural gas pipeline, Globalsat’s customer required communication capabilities for remote field teams and centralized staff. While the customer had previously installed an extensive VHF network, the new pipeline maintenance zone in northern Argentina exceeded the reach of this network. In order to avoid the costs and time associated with extending the VHF network, the customer presented the connectivity challenge to Globalsat.
In addition to considering Iridium satellite connectivity, the customer required a solution that would work in tandem with its existing VHF infrastructure, where possible, as well as could integrate with the customer’s enterprise-wide VoIP telephone exchange, Cisco Call Manager.
The Solution
Iridium Push-To-Talk enabled strong, reliable group communications, especially in areas beyond the reach of the customer’s existing VHF network. Globalsat, along with Iridium equipment manufacturer Icom, worked closely with the customer to bridge the satellite and VHF networks and provide interoperability using Icom’s Radio-over-IP (RoIP) gateway, VE-PG4.
Once the Iridium and VHF networks were bridged, Globalsat supported the customer in connecting its VoIP telephone system and enabling two-way communications between centralized teams and field workers using IP phones and applications. Ultimately, the centralized team was able to speak with Iridium PTT users in remote parts of Argentina as easily as making any other call,
The Impact
“Being able to integrate Iridium PTT with the existing VHF services our customer had already invested in, as well as its company-wide telephone system, was the beauty of this solution
–Silvina Graziadio,
Director of Marketing & Business Development, Globalsat Group
Iridium PTT, along with Icom’s Iridium Connected equipment and the proactive support of Globalsat allowed the customer to utilize a fully-integrated communications network, leveraging satellite PTT, VHF radio, and VoIP telephony. The team was able to deploy the solution quickly, and this cohesive network provided the customer with greater mobility and flexibility throughout the maintenance process. Additionally, the customer was able to avoid the steep costs associated with building new land-based support.
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