From Anthony Nwachukwu, Lagos
In its ongoing efforts at improving efficiency and productivity at its facilities, APM Terminals has deployed the public 4G LTE (Long-Term Evolution) networks at its largest container terminal in West Africa, the APM Terminals Apapa.
The company said the wireless connectivity supports its global initiatives such as standardisation of terminal operating systems, reporting and support, asset digitalisation, and GPS-based position detection systems used for auto-locating containers in a yard.
This will avail the terminal the benefits of the standards-based network as it uses radio equipment to service the terminal’s applications and services, and can be tailored to process very high volumes of data messages with minimal delay, just as the base station allows independence of traffic peaks in the wider network, it noted.
APM Terminals explained that a secure VPN tunnel is used as an encryption mechanism to segregate APM Terminals data from general carrier data to ensure compliance with the company’s global security requirements.
The new 4G LTE connectivity solution, which has already been tested and rolled out at other APM Terminals locations, meets ground-level coverage and performance requirements in the entire yard, with three dedicated sectors for APM Terminals and limited infrastructure deployment at the terminals.
According to the Country Manager, APM Terminals Nigeria, Mr Klaus Laursen, “in recent years, APM Terminals Apapa had embarked on massive digitisation of its operations and services in keeping with APM Terminals’ global transformation drive.
“Our customers can expect greater efficiency and higher productivity with the deployment of the 4G wireless network, as it will allow for better collaboration in our terminal operations.”
