“The growing global appetite for natural resources is rapidly driving mining concerns into emerging markets,” said Martin Creamer, Publisher of Creamer Media and Editor of Mining Weekly. “The need for cost-effective communications to support remote operations has never been greater. This agreement aims to strengthen understanding of how satellite and other complementary communications tools are being used to address critical mining challenges.”

“From workforce development and safety to remote monitoring and logistics, there are an increasing number of mining applications being addressed by satellite-enabled network solutions,” said David Hartshorn, Secretary General of GVF. “Through this agreement, Creamer Media and GVF intend to heighten awareness of innovative approaches that are producing positive results in the mining sector.”

Creamer Media’s Mining Weekly publication and MiningWeekly.com, which receives 43,000 unique visitors per week, will begin co-ordinating with GVF on industry news, event information, and special reports that reveal the impact of communications trends on each stage of the mining project life cycle, both for the majors and for the juniors.

In recent years, the satellite communications industry has experienced an escalation of signal interference, adversely impacting broadcast and telecommunication services. The Initiative has launched a multiple front campaign to combat this trend. The first aspect is a carrier ID working forum to pursue industry implementation of carrier ID: a means to identify interfering signals. The second aspect is the formation of the Space Data Association- an organization that will facilitate collecting and sharing interference event data amongst its satellite operator members. The third aspect is VSAT installer training.Installation by inadequately trained technicians is one of the main causes of interference identified by the Initiative. GVF has responded by enhancing the established VSAT Installer Training program to focus even more strongly on the skills necessary to avoid accidental generation of adjacent-satellite, cross-pol, and re-radiation interference.

As part of the Initiative, Intelsat has announcedtheir intent to train 400 installers per year through GVF for the next three years. SES has also formally adopted the GVF program, saying the training would help in its efforts to refocus the industry’s approach to managing and preventing interference. They have been joined by other satellite operators such as Eutelsat, Inmarsat, Telesat, Asiasat and others in endorsing the GVF’s new Basic Certification level and the associated online training course, GVF510, specifically targeted at delivering the core skills needed by field technicians to avoid creating VSAT-generated interference.

Whether it is mitigating uplink interference via the Basic Certification, providing solid knowledge and skills in VSAT installation, maintenance, and troubleshooting via the Advanced Certification, or gaining skills for installation, maintenance, and troubleshooting of specific equipment types via Specialist Certifications, the GVF Certification Program provides training for the knowledge and skills you need to be successful in the VSAT industry.

“We can provide the perfect solution to these requirements” said Jean-Claude Bisenius, Managing Director of atrexx. “We firstly evaluate the needs of the customer in order to propose an end-to-end solution using state-of-the-art SCPC equipment. We then calculate the link budget, procure the space segment required, program the modem, and help the customer to line-up the satellite with our teleport partners. When we are satisfied that everything is working to the end-user’s requirements, we pass over full control of the network to the customer. However, atrexx is always there to provide support and monitoring whenever it is needed.”

The complete, structured solution has several key advantages for the customer. It is scalable with small bandwidth increments, flexible and will grow as a business does. It also allows the customer to have overall control of the network without the involvement of any telecommunications or teleport provider – yet with the assurance of strong service partner support, should it be required. There is low latency, as all communications from headquarters to remote sites is via single hop. This is a strong benefit when compared to a traditional solution involving a hub station in Europe, resulting in double hop communication and thus double latency. The single hop solution proposed by atrexx only needs half the satellite bandwidth of a hub based alternative and thus is very cost-effective.

The service is made possible due to the use of new, high power satellites that lower customer’s investment. An antenna of typically 1.8 m in Ku-Band and 2.4m in C-Band is required at each side of the link. The hubless solution is thus as affordable to implement as a traditional VSAT network.

“Working across vast continents such as Africa, where conventional travel can sometimes be challenging, means large organizations need to maximize on the potential of communications technology,” said atrexx’ customer Olanrewaju Ore from KKON Technologies in Nigeria which have set up and provide support to a large bank network”. The bank needs to equal the efficiency across the world and atrexx has come up with a superb solution that allows us to achieve all this, and also to do it very cost effectively. The great support from atrexx has helped to have the complete satellite based corporate network up and running within days”, Mr. Ore continued.

It has recently come to the attention of atrexx that some customers of satellite operators are dissatisfied with the fact that they are tied into long-term capacity leases, and there is no flexibility offered to them in terms of opting out of their contract or exchanging their bandwidth.

Markus Schäfer, Managing Director, Marketing and Sales at atrexx explained: “Reasons for customers’ dissatisfaction with their long term leases could be the economic situation taking its toll, or new capacity being introduced to the market that offers better coverage and higher power. Unfortunately, satellite operators will generally not bend on the terms of the contract leaving the customer with capacity that they cannot use. Other customers want to upgrade existing leases to respond to increased demand, and they cannot do so as all capacity has been sold.”

atrexx provides a valuable solution to these problems – the atrexx Trading Platform: Established in 2002, the Platform is a satellite marketplace, designed to bring buyers and sellers of satellite related resources and services together. The Platform offers free registration to both parties. Once registered, they are able to post their request or their available services onto the platform. All postings are publicly – yet anonymously – accessible worldwide, to everyone with access to the Internet. Updates are available by e-mail as well as through Twitter tweets and RSS feeds.

The Platform offers many advantages for both the buyer and the seller. The seller benefits by making a sale on capacity that would otherwise have not been used. From the buyer’s point of view, the atrexx Platform provides them with a great choice of suppliers and therefore enables them to find the best deal possible and to realize considerable savings. When satellite capacity is scarce, as is currently the case for Africa and the Middle East, the resale market is often the only source to satisfy specific requests, as satellite operators are often sold out.

Once the registrant has identified a post that attracts them, atrexx takes over. atrexx opens the bidding process with the supplier on the buyer’s behalf, pre-negotiating the contract terms and acting within a well-defined framework. All parties know exactly where they stand. atrexx has already helped many who have found that they no longer wish to hold on to their capacity.

Edwin Cras, Managing Director of Castor Broadcasting B.V., a leading provider of voice, video, data and multimedia solutions, based in the Netherlands, voiced his satisfaction: “Finding the right satellite capacity at the right price used to involve a lot of phone calls to hopefully the right people. Selling is even tougher; often you were looking for the needle in the haystack. With the atrexx Trading Platform finding capacity is much easier!” Mr. Cras continued: “Selling is even better; everybody looking for capacity can now find a seller with great ease. This helps to avoid empty capacity sitting on your books eating your profits away. We at Castor for sure have benefitted from the atrexx Trading Platform.”

The atrexx Trading Platform offers its users a simple and stress-free way of obtaining or dispensing with capacity. In an age where bandwidth is a precious commodity, atrexx is able to maximize usage of any capacity left idle and often to provide the resources that are urgently needed.

The unique approach is enabling the project to be implemented with significantly more speed, whilst also maintaining the highest levels of reliability, efficiency and quality.Remote tuning is being performed on 32 GE 10 and PGT25 gas turbines at pipeline compression stations located along the pipeline and is scheduled for completion at the end of November 2009. After this date future remote tuning activity will be extended under a long-term contractual service agreement.

“RGTIL is committed to meeting aggressive gas transportation pipeline commissioning targets – so the efficient, reliable and rapid start-up of new gas turbines was critical,” said Jeff Nagel, Vice President Global Services, GE Oil & Gas. “Adding to the challenge was the fact that many of the pipeline stations are in remote locations. This project provides a model that we will replicate in future DLN tuning efforts for other customers.”

To meet the stringent requirements of this project, GE Oil & Gas implemented an innovative remote tuning and commissioning strategy. The project relies on bridge-encrypted internet connection between servers at the GE Oil & Gas Florence, Italy headquarters and manually operated computer terminals located at the remote pipeline stations.

GE Oil & Gas is a world leader in advanced technology equipment and services for all segments of the oil and gas industry, from drilling and production, LNG, pipelines and storage to industrial power generation, refining and petrochemicals. It also provides pipeline integrity solutions, including inspection and data management. GE Oil & Gas leverages technological innovation from other GE businesses, such as aviation and healthcare, to continuously improve oil and gas industry performance and productivity. GE Oil & Gas employs more than 12,000 people worldwide and operates in over 100 countries.