Nordgold connected by means of VPN mines in Africa, offices to Europe and Moscow

On September 23, 2013 the Orange Business Services company announced project completion of creation of VPN network for three mines of the Nordgold gold mining company.

Project Task

"We were faced by a task of the organization of a reliable and qualitative video conferencing for operational interaction of the central office with mines in Burkina Faso and Guinea" — Victor Skorobogatov, the head of information technologies Nordgold emphasized.

As a result of the tender, as the supplier of telecommunication services the operating company of Orange Business Services is selected.

Project Progress

For creation of the communication infrastructure supporting video conferences, Orange used satellite links. According to Antonina Evdokimova, the product manager of data transmission of the Moscow office Orange, satellite services allow to solve a broad spectrum of tasks during creation of global corporate networks, in hardly accessible regions - in particular.

For connection to Orange network of two satellite stations Nordgold in Burkina Faso and one in Guinea own satellite teleport of Orange in France is used, it is connected by a high-speed optical communication link to the Russian network segment of Orange and the client's infrastructure. The contract opened in Russia was executed with involvement of specialists of the region of the Middle East and Africa, and the satellite equipment is supplied directly from France for optimization of project cost.

The guaranteed maximum speed of data transmission is 2 Mbps. Transceiving antennas with a small aperture of Prodelin company and modems of Comtech company are used to satellite contact.

Project implementation, including inspection of installation sites of telecommunication equipment, its delivery, installation, licensing and commissioning, took half a year.

"Satellite communications become more and more demanded in Russia. Technology revolution stimulates transfer of huge data arrays from the hardly accessible Areas of Siberia and the Far East in mining companies" — Pavel Paplinski, the director of strategy and marketing of Orange Business Services in Russia and the CIS noted.