Nokia’s LTE to power copper mine in Peru and Oil & gas customers in Gulf of Mexico

The 4G LTE and the 5G network aren’t just a number of megabits in download/upload on smartphones, but serve an important purpose in the industry. Companies build private LTE network to connect their machines and employees inside their organizations, and the low latency and support for more connected devices of the 5G network will further improve automation, as was demonstrated by Nokia’s futuristic factory in Oulu.

In Peru, Nokia and Telefonica Peru signed a contract with the operator of the world’s ninth largest copper mine Minera Las Bambas. Nokia will build and deploy a private LTE network to digitalize and enable automation of the copper mine in Apurimac in Peru. Apart from improving existing services and reducing cost, Las Bambas’ network will benefit from push-to-talk and push-to-video solutions as the network moves towards 5G. Nokia has over 80 large customers deploying private LTE around the world and you can find more info about this deal in the press release here.

In Gulf of Mexico, RigNet chose Nokia to upgrade its microwave network with 4G LTE services for their customers in the Oil & gas sector. Gulf of Mexico is famous for petroleum production and RigNet covers 55,000 square miles (142,450km²) with their overwater network.

The network upgrade will also allow support for 5G services in the future. It will allow RigNet to expand bandwidth to support new IP-based applications without needing a new antenna infrastructure, which means a reduced cost in upgrading from legacy network. More about this deal can be found here.