Wireless technology partnerships helps to create communications in mines

| 01.11.2007 | 09:42:118488 |

January 11: Three technology firms have partnered with local mine operating companies in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Alabama to create a wireless communications system to connect miners with the outside world. The new technology allows calls to be placed during a disaster in the hopes that 2006 mine disasters will not be repeated, InformationWeek reported.

The three technology firms, Hannah Engineering, Rajant and Sanmina-SCI developed the new technology last December. The calls were made in a mine shaft 1000 feet below the earth's surface to "Rajant's headquarters in Malvern, Pa., Sanmina's Huntsville, Ala., office and to several locations in West Virginia.

InformationWorld reported "Wireless communication from within a mine is expected to greatly improve safety by giving miners a way to communicate with the outside world during a disaster. ... The new system gets around the inability of cellular networks to penetrate the earth through the use of Internet telephony, or VoIP."

"A network of portable wireless routers built by Rajant would be set up throughout the mine to move a call outside to Sanmina technology, which would convert the signal to analog and move it over the traditional phone lines," the technology publication reported.

The development of the technology by the three companies was in response to new federal regulations mandated late in 2006 after the Sago Mine disaster. "The rules included in the Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act require mining companies to install better wireless communications and tracking systems to boost miner safety."