Starting in 2009 and finishing in June 2017, OSA (in partnership with CommScope and Calix) upgraded, designed and supplied 30,000 man FTTD (fibre to the donga) over several mine camps in the Pilbara region.

“The village entertainment services are a crucial part of the mine camp infrastructure, bringing essential television, internet and phone services to the thousands of workers living in these remote parts of Australia,” says Eugene Botha, Business Development Manager for Optical Solutions Australia’s Western Australia branch.

“In the past a typical legacy camp design just matched like for like, but we came up with a solution that helped overcome the limitations of both distance and technology…and also provided substantial cost savings.”

GPON (Gigabit Passive Optical Networks) helped to overcome the limitations of technology as well as substantial providing ongoing cost savings because as technology progresses there’s now no need to upgrade the network. Rio Tinto can simply change out the hardware and plug in the new technology.

Along with distance, remoteness of location and harshness of the environment, another challenge to be overcome was the contractor’s lack of knowledge of GPON technology, which is why OSA invested time into training the contractors on installing and maintaining the new system.

But perhaps the most rewarding aspect of this project was OSA’s ability to deliver a better solution that was also a much cheaper solution.