Upon winning a bid to maintain and manage a new natural gas pipeline, Globalsat’s customer required communication capabilities for remote field teams and centralized staff. While the customer had previously installed an extensive VHF network, the new pipeline maintenance zone in northern Argentina exceeded the reach of this network. In order to avoid the costs and time associated with extending the VHF network, the customer presented the connectivity challenge to Globalsat.

In addition to considering Iridium satellite connectivity, the customer required a solution that would work in tandem with its existing VHF infrastructure, where possible, as well as could integrate with the customer’s enterprise-wide VoIP telephone exchange, Cisco Call Manager.

Iridium Push-To-Talk enabled strong, reliable group communications, especially in areas beyond the reach of the customer’s existing VHF network. Globalsat, along with Iridium equipment manufacturer Icom, worked closely with the customer to bridge the satellite and VHF networks and provide interoperability using Icom’s Radio-over-IP (RoIP) gateway, VE-PG4.

Once the Iridium and VHF networks were bridged, Globalsat supported the customer in connecting its VoIP telephone system and enabling two-way communications between centralized teams and field workers using IP phones and applications. Ultimately, the centralized team was able to speak with Iridium PTT users in remote parts of Argentina as easily as making any other call.

Being able to integrate Iridium PTT with the existing VHF services our customer had already invested in, as well as its company-wide telephone system, was the beauty of this solution.