American tower is one of the worlds leading providers of wireless communications technology in the form of distributed antenna systems, wireless communications infrastructure and remote broadcasting sites. They have 56,000 global site installations.
For a telecommunication infrastructure project in Ghana, American Tower chose AKCP as their partner to provide a remote monitoring access control solution for the initial phase of a 2,000 site rollout. Each location consists of a fenced off site area installed with a generator, voltage regulator, diesel fuel tank, utility power, DC power and a transmission tower. The sites are being serviced to cellular network operators.
A recurring problem with theft from the sites meant a solution for controlling access and monitoring who had entered specific sites was required. American Tower chose AKCP’s remote site monitoring and distributed access control solution to be implemented in an effort to combat this situation. Using the Cabinet Control Unit (CCU) together with a Door Control Unit (DCU) access to the main gate as well as cabinets within the site could be controlled. Using AKCPro Server multiple sites could be monitored and controlled from one central office using the GSM GPRS connection at each site. This gives an accurate time stamped record of each employee who enters specific sites, when they exited and what cabinets were accessed during the visits.
American Tower selected AKCP due to our unique system and capabilities. We solved several technical challenges by the nature of our distributed system. The access control database is administered from the central monitoring software, AKCPro Server, and then distributed to each unit within the network. This means even if GSM GPRS connection is down access is still maintained. Access logs are still made, and stored locally on the Door Control Unit (DCU). When connectivity is re-established all logs on the server are updated with the latest information. This together with the cost effectiveness of AKCP’s system made them the only choice.
