News
Issue #2003 - 03 (January 2003)
(Updated Jan. 30, 2003)

APPLICATION SOLUTIONS & APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT

Transco Selects Brand Communications 'Apollo' to Deliver GPRS Mobile Workforce Solution in lieu of Private Mobile Radio (PMR) Network

HUNTINGDON - 13th January 2003 - UK Based, Mobile Data and Remote Access Specialist, Brand Communications Limited, today has announced that Transco, Britain's leading gas transporter, have selected and installed the Brand 'Apollo Anywhere' solution for their GPRS Private Mobile Radio (PMR) Replacement project.

Transco has successfully deployed Brand's Apollo 'Anywhere' solution into it's corporate network, which will provide over 3,500 remote employees with fast and reliable access to mission critical applications such as 'dynamic job dispatch' and in the near future access to other back office applications using GPRS.

Transco's Mobile Workforce plays an essential role in the running of the business, attending to gas emergencies and critical situations on a daily basis. Transco needed a solution, which would allow them to use 'dynamic job dispatch' to their regular and emergency field-based workers and other mission critical applications. 

In 2001, Transco took the decision to replace their existing Private Mobile Radio (PMR) with GPRS. This decision was taken for many different reasons. GPRS could offer Transco a nearly 'always on' solution, so they could reach their engineers with information at any point throughout the day. With GPRS, they had greater flexibility, as they could communicate with engineers from any location and not be restricted as they were with the PMR system.

But with the adoption of GPRS, Transco also encountered many obstacles and enlisted Brand Communications to help solve them. Brand's Apollo 'Anywhere' software allows Transco's mobile users to maintain true 'always-on' reliable access to applications in real time. Brand makes this possible by transparently integrating the LAN environment with wireless WAN environments, enabling seamless roaming across GPRS and GSM (switched circuit) networks.

Brand offered Transco all the benefits of business access computing on multiple wireless network standards - with the added benefit of high compression levels, fast packet loss recovery and dynamic switching between 802.11b, GPRS or other bearer networks depending on availability during the same transaction.

Another key factor for consideration by Transco was Security. With Brand's enhanced security techniques, it ensured that only valid users could establish sessions and access application throughout the day. 

Brand's Apollo 'Anywhere' solution makes mobile data a reality for business-critical data applications using Session Management. It removes the uncertainty of using the wireless network to transfer vital information and ensures compatibility with almost all data devices and networks resulting in a future-proofed investment for Transco, allowing access to all IP-based applications from the office, home or in the field. 

Martin Kendrick, Brand Communications Managing Director, commented, " Transco recognized that Brand Communications was the missing link in their communications solution. Brand brought reliability and ease of use to the whole of Transco's mobile data solution. With the deployment of GPRS, security and interoperability with legacy applications can cause some major headaches to business users. The Mobile VPN, an integral component in the Apollo 'Anywhere' solution, removed all these obstacles for Transco.

"Transco's mobile users were increasingly needing to access critical data and services in a variety of different locations and environments" said Martin Evans, PMR Replacement Delivery Manager at Transco. "We selected Brand Communications because we felt their technology offered us so many different capabilities and helped our engineers to obtain a reliable, seamless and usable mobile connection at anytime in anyplace.

About Brand Communications
Brand Communications develops and markets a range of mobile, remote office and site-to-site access solutions for various environments including ISDN, PSTN, Fixed Lines, Satellite, GSM and GPRS.

More information can be found at http://www.brandcomms.com

MobileInfo Comments and Advisory: It is interesting to see GPRS being used to replace private radio networks. But more importantly, Transco is utilizing a wireless LAN for local access along with GPRS for the wide area. As more and more private radio network customers find that public-shared network offer more affordable, relatively-secure and higher-speed wireless infrastructure, this trend will continue.

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