Situation:
African Mining Services (AMS), an Ausdrill Ltd. subsidiary, required evaluation, re-design, and implementation of an optimized satellite based communications solution for their corporate network based in Ghana. The purpose of this network was to seamlessly integrate the remote posts with the headquarters to fulfill interoffice communication requirements as well as access to networks around the world.

AMS, is operational that provides mining services, such as load, haul, and exploration drilling, throughout Africa. Currently AMS operates a private communications network linking numerous mining facilities in Ghana to their regional head office in Accra.

Challenge:
In the past, AMS has used a SCPC based meshed solution which was very expensive to operate and offered virtually no room for network expansion or seamless augmentation.
The expansion challenge was felt since upgrades, augmentation and general service was affected by the limitations of the current setup. A need for an optimized solution that would be cost-effective, easily manageable, and more scalable in terms of network growth was clearly a need that became evident.

Solution:
ITC Global, a reliable turnkey communications solutions provider, leveraged its Global Network Capacity capability to offer a robust, augmentable, telecommunications solution to AMS. AMS used the Mini-Hub in Accra as the proposed from ITC Global, to create a true star within a star network configuration by having the iDirect mini-hub placed at the accounting center in Accra and a sizable star network to the 4 remote sites elsewhere in Ghana. This cost effective solution provides the necessary communication infrastructure no only to service the current needs, but also allows expansion should the project require temporary or permanent network augmentation. Each site in Ghana, including the headquarters, had a second modem that was programmed to send and receive traffic from ITC’s main hub in Miami, Florida, so that connectivity to the internet was via a single hop from each site, as was connectivity from each remote site to the accounting software in Accra.

AMS Ghana - Network Schematic

As a result AMS was supplied with a scalable solution that used their existing B-site antennas and BUC’s. In addition, the recommended solution provided them with complete control of their network down to the individual network protocol, lowered their recurring bandwidth costs, and lowered the latency between each site and Accra (HQ).

About ITC:
ITC Global has been providing voice and data wide-area networking services to corporate and non-governmental organizations internationally for over twelve years. Typically, these customers are located in remote areas where conventional communication methods are not available or economically feasible. ITC Global has used its expertise in next-generation networking to provide innovative and cost-effective services to these customers.