Netcomm - Out of the woods with advanced connectivity

NetComm develops fixed and mobile broadband technologies covering HSPA+, LTE, machine-to-machine (M2M) and fiber access devices for home, business and industrial applications. The Company specializes in designing rugged 3G and 4G products to provide reliable data communications for resource hungry applications in areas such as forestry.

Challenges

NetComm was approached by WA Plantation Resources (WAPRES), a major player in the Australian wood fiber industry, to provide broadband Internet connectivity in remote locations without landline services. The Western Australian based company exports around one million tons of woodchips to Japan every year and manages thousands of hectares of sustainable bluegum plantations across the south-west of the state.

The difficulty for WAPRES staff at some of the remote facilities was that they lacked reliable access to secure centralized applications hosted from the main office in Bunbury.

The challenge was to provide access to centralized applications from remote forestry facilities with no ADSL connection. ISDN infrastructure was considered, but this solution was far from ideal for the sort of data throughput required. "The answer arrived in the form of the Telstra Turbo™ Gateway for a fast, flexible and reliable connection,” says David Stewart, Managing Director, NetComm.

The Telstra Turbo™ Gateway was designed to turn a single 3G wireless broadband service into a WiFi and Ethernet hotspot, allowing users to share their connection. The Gateway utilizes the extensive Telstra Next G™ network to bring connectivity to remote locations, thanks to the AirPrime embedded wireless module.

Solution

WAPRES operations are spread across a wide geographic area that includes: seed orchards, nurseries, managed plantations, wood chipping facilities and port operations. With easy integration and high-end functionality being essential to achieving optimum 3G connectivity across a number of vast and remote locations, NetComm selected Sierra Wireless and its AirPrime MC Series embedded wireless module for its Telstra Turbo™ Gateway.

The AirPrime module is certified on the Telstra Next G™ network and is a proven solution in Australia. It can be integrated seamlessly within the Gateways that were installed at the WAPRES facility in Manjimup. Staff gained access to Telstra’s IPWAN service which provided a secure network on which to interface with the firm’s business applications.

"The Sierra Wireless AirPrime embedded module was the ideal solution for the nursery which is located at the very edge of network coverage. The antenna diversity offered by the AirPrime module provided vastly improved fringe performance,” says David Stewart, Managing Director at NetComm.