MTS will build a dedicated commercial LTE network at the new mine of MMC Norilsk Nickel

2022: Signing an agreement on the construction of a dedicated technological LTE network at the Mokulaevsky limestone deposit under construction

MTS will build a dedicated technological LTE network at the under construction Mokulaevsky limestone deposit, which is part of the nickel and palladium producer MMC Norilsk Nickel PJSC. This was announced in MTS on December 9, 2022.

According to the signed agreement, MTS will build for LLC, Norilsk Support Complex a division of MMC Norilsk Nickel, a digital infrastructure one for dispatching mountain work on the basis of a dedicated LTE technological network, which will optimize the loading of ore and the movement of quarry transport and machinery, reduce time runways and downtime at the mine, as well as increase the level. industrial safety

The construction of an open-pit mine at the Mokulaevsky limestone deposit is one of Norilsk Nickel's strategic projects. The mine will start operating at full capacity in 2026. Prior to the conclusion of the contract on the construction of a network at this field, MTS implemented another project with MMC Norilsk Nickel in 2021 - it deployed a pilot dedicated LTE network at the Skalistaya underground mine of the Komsomolsky mine, showing the possibility of mining operations involving robotic equipment, group operational radio communications, autonomous dispatching and control systems.

Signing a contract with MMC Norilsk Nickel is one of the key commercial projects of MTS to deploy digital infrastructure in the mining industry, where the use of dedicated networks demonstrates special efficiency in improving productivity and safety of mining operations. A distinctive feature of this project is that the dedicated network and its parameters are laid down in the early stages of mine development. Thus, the company will be able to take into account all the technical nuances affecting the activities of the mining enterprise, noted Oleg Aldoshin, Vice President for Corporate and New Business Development of MTS.

Creating a reliable broadband data infrastructure of industrial reliability in quarries is a non-trivial task for traditional equipment suppliers and mobile operators. The company expects from the project the creation of a multi-service wireless data network that provides the current needs of the main production with the necessary scalability and flexibility, which will allow you to respond to other requirements for functionality and bandwidth. commented on the Director of IT Infrastructure and Communications of Norilsk Nickel Victoria Podvolitsina.

To automate industrial processes in the mining industry, a reliable high-speed wireless network is needed to transmit heterogeneous traffic - from video and control radio communications (trunking) to telemetry. Traditionally, specialized solutions have been used for these purposes (for example, DMR/TETRA systems, Wi-Fi network), customers choose the architecture of dedicated IP networks of the LTE standard with the possibility of subsequent transition to 5G. This allows the mining enterprise to save on the total cost of ownership (TCO) of the communication infrastructure, get not only a single data transfer environment, but also run other automation services on top of it with less costs, implementation time and information security risks .