Maintaining a communications infrastructure in a country covering nearly 800,000 square kilometers is quite a challenge. Rural switching exchanges are located in literally every region of the country.
In 2004, Turk Telekom, the main fixed line provider in Turkey had a requirement for 500 new DC power plants to enlarge its rural network coverage. Argus, a member of The Alpha Group, responded with its leading edge CordexTM products, successfully overcoming strong local and international competition with the Cordex 48VDC 1kW rectifiers and shelves, CXCR controller with integrated DC powered modem and embedded browser. These Argus components were installed into two unique 19” power system racks, that were designed by Argus then subsequently refined, modified and manufactured in Turkey, by Argus’ Turkish partner IPC.
The rectifiers, controller and shelves complied fully with the technically demanding Turkish specifications, almost from the start of the project, with very little customer specific modification being required. Alpha Group resources from Europe, South Africa and Canada were brought together for two weeks of rigorous Prototype and Factory Acceptance Testing that was successfully concluded within just four weeks of signing the sales contract.
Argus won this contract because it could offer the lowest cost of ownership solution, 100% technical compliance, a strong Turkish partnership, and effective 24/7 support.
Turk Telekom was particularly impressed with how quickly Argus translated 1500 lines of parameter labels on the controller’s GUI (graphical user interface) into the Turkish language.
In addition to a wide-ranging temperature and humidity variation, the Turkish systems can be subjected to high mains / line distribution losses. This is more than catered for by Cordex’ exceptional low line operation. Likewise, high line and mains borne transients are suppressed and/or clamped by special circuit protection devices.
Convection cooling throughout assists in reducing maintenance callouts. Dial-up communication and polling using the CXCR’s on-board modem, SNMP protocol and Argus’ proprietary MIPS, ensures that the 80 or so of the regional network control centers, have continuous surveillance of all 500 sites to maintain a very resilient network.
These systems are currently powering Alcatel, Ericsson, Siemens and Nortel switches.
When 75% of the contract quantity was installed, Turk Telekom signified their satisfaction with Argus/IPC by awarding a 25% increase in contracted quantities, resulting in 125% of the original contract. This year, an additional 25% was given to IPC.
In 2006, Turkish Telekom issued a new tender for 5000 DC Power Systems for base stations ranging from 7.2kW to 72kW. Argus/IPC was again chosen by Turkish Telekom to provide those systems over the next 3 years.
Being successful in the fixed line communication network positioned Argus/IPC well to accept another challenge in providing solutions for GSM operators like Telsim–Vodafone. Argus has worked successfully with IPC to provide high and low power solutions to Vodafone in Turkey and Northern Cyprus.
An inital contract with Vodafone Turkey was for 100 systems for 2000A based on the Cordex 3.6kW technology. The successful conclusion of the Vodafone Cyprus contract resulted in the award of a contract for 120 systems of 150A based on the Cordex 1.8kW technology.
In addition, Argus and IPC have been successful in penetrating the Utilities Market with the HVDC products, and are working diligently to introduce the FXM family of products into NOKIA Turkey.
