Fortescue Metals choose Sepura for their railway TETRA network

Sepura TETRA radios have been selected to operate on the first long haul railway radio network owned by the major Australian mining organisation Fortescue Metals Group (FMG). This unique contract was won in conjunction with Radlink, one of Sepura’s longstanding and experienced partners in Australia.
In 2010 FMG first adopted TETRA technology as a future-proof company-wide standard for all communications further to the successful pilot site roll out at their flagship iron ore mine of Christmas Creek in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The TETRA radio system now covers all of the company’s operations and provides a unified communications platform to enable the smooth running of their activities across all facets of the business.

The new TETRA system deployed by FMG’s rail network comprises 24 sites, over 400 km of rail roads and over 800 Sepura TETRA terminals.
Scott Manson from Radlink commented: “FMG’s decision to extend TETRA technology to its long haul heavy rail was driven by TETRA’s ability to address successfully their voice and data requirements. FMG chose Sepura radios as they exceeded coverage expectations and system performance. In particular, the Australian mining organisation also felt that terminals exhaustively addressed their safety and security requirements with functionalities such as man down and the guaranteed levels of authentication”.

Manson concluded: “Fortescue Metals are now looking beyond the voice capabilities of the radio network in order to continue their journey of innovation and data applications. The main reason for this is the further simplification of complex tasks over their radio system in order to get the most out of their TETRA equipment, which will ultimately contribute to the success of the overall business”.
Doug Bowden, Senior Business Development Manager from Sepura commented: “FMG’s decision to extend their TETRA communications capabilities to their long haul rail, it is not only very innovative, but is also testament to the partnership between our organisations and the performance of our TETRA radios. In the last two years we have witnessed the growing adoption of TETRA by the mining sector in Australia, Europe and also in the American continent and believe that Sepura has played a significant part in stimulating this growth”.