Alcatel-Lucent Chosen to Implement Wireless Technology in Rio Tinto's Iron Ore Operations

Rio Tinto has just selected Alcatel-Lucent (News - Alert) to provide its operations with next-generation wireless technology that can scale to any needs it might have in the foreseeable future. Alcatel-Lucent aims to improve Rio Tinto's communications infrastructure in Western Australia by implementing 4G LTE (News - Alert) and fiber-optic networking. These new technologies will greatly boost the speed at which the company communicates internally and externally so that Rio Tinto can monitor its assets and better administer its in-pit mining operations, raising the bar for safety and efficient.

The new 4G LTE network implementation will be end-to-end, meaning that packets sent across the network will not pass through intermediary nodes - a concept that increases communications speeds. This will be implemented in Rio Tinto's West Angelas mine in the Pilbara. Until now, no other mining sector company has implemented such technology for internal communications. Alcatel-Lucent will also give Rio Tinto a fiber backbone coupled with powerful network management software, added to professional services that will assist in network administration.

Rio Tinto has been on the fast track to becoming one of the top industrial leaders in technology within the mining sector and has made clear goals to grow its Pilbara mining operations to 353 million tons within the next three years.

"Rio Tinto is at the cutting edge of digital service innovation and deployment, driving new levels of productivity and efficiency," said Sean O'Halloran, Alcatel-Lucent Australia's president and managing director. "This is the first deployment of its kind and is a result of a collaborative and interactive process with Rio Tinto. It will provide a strong foundation for any future rollouts of private LTE networks to enhance operations at other locations."

Along with providing the solutions, Alcatel-Lucent will stick around to provide expertise services, such as testing the new implementations, managing the projects, and designing the implementation. Any maintenance will also be provided by the company.

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