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Construction

Connectivity for sites that keep moving

A construction site is a temporary enterprise. It needs connectivity, security, devices and support before permanent infrastructure exists, and then all of it has to move, scale or disappear as the build changes. Ericom designs that operating environment, deploys it anywhere in Australia, and runs it from mobilisation to handover.

Right in month one, wrong by month eight

The first people arrive before the fibre does. The workforce grows through several contractors, coverage changes as concrete and steel go up, temporary offices move, and the areas carrying the most risk are often the last places a normal network reaches.

That makes a particular kind of problem. A perfectly good design for the first month can be wrong by the eighth, and none of it failed. The site changed.

  • The site office has signal

    The basement, the core and the plant room do not. A booster is not an internet service and a 5G router does not fix a dead zone inside a structure. Which one is failing decides the design, so it gets measured before anything is specified.

  • The contractor left

    The device did not, and it still holds project information. Access built around a person, instead of around a role, an employer and a project, cannot be withdrawn cleanly when the employer changes and the project does not.

  • Practical completion, still billing

    Services still billing, devices still out, equipment still sitting on a site that has closed. Demobilisation runs on a register or it runs on memory, and memory leaves with the project team.

Site technology has to be designed for changing site conditions, with the moves built in, and it has to be designed to leave: what was staged at mobilisation is what is reconciled at demobilisation.

From mobilisation to handover

The technology plan follows the job. Each stage asks something different of the same environment, which is why designing for one of them produces something that fails at the next.

  • Mobilise

    The project has to work before permanent services exist. Connectivity, secure network equipment, access and managed devices are staged before they reach site, so the first office opens as an operating environment rather than a pallet of boxes.

  • Build

    Coverage and demand change with the structure. Equipment moves or is added where required, and compounds, gates and work zones stay connected without redesigning everything each time the floor plan changes.

  • Commission

    Temporary and permanent infrastructure start to overlap. Coverage, networks, security and building systems are validated against how the finished facility will actually operate, with documentation and ownership prepared for handover.

  • Demobilise

    Services cancelled, devices recovered, data removed, equipment redeployed and the asset register reconciled. The project stops paying for what has left the site, and the next one does not start by buying it again.

What we bring to a site

Six Ericom services, each with its own page, where a project team reads the same description as any other buyer; nothing here is repackaged for construction. What makes them work together on a site is one party staging them for the same mobilisation date, moving them as the structure closes, and reconciling them at the same demobilisation.

  1. Distributed Antenna Systems Carrier-approved coverage for the basements, cores and completed structures where a phone stops working and a duress call stops arriving. Some of it is temporary, some moves, and the final system is validated against the closed structure rather than the frame.
  2. Business Mobile The Telstra fleet across employees, contractors and project partners, with every service and plan on a register from the day it is issued, so the bill at practical completion describes the people still on site.
  3. IT Support The devices, identities, Microsoft 365 and support underneath the project, with joiner, mover and leaver workflows keyed to role, employer and project, so access ends when the engagement does.
  4. Intelligent Video Analytics The cameras a site already has, reading after-hours movement, perimeter entry and vehicle activity while it is happening, instead of being opened after a theft. The project sets the purpose, the areas and the retention, and we build to that.
  5. Essential Eight Where a client, insurer or government procurement asks for the Essential Eight, the work starts with an assessment against the ASD maturity model, not with the tools already owned. There is no certificate, and we do not imply one.
  6. Secure Device Disposal Demobilisation with a chain of custody: devices recovered, data destroyed and every asset accounted for, so the project closes on a reconciled register.

Faults do not arrive labelled

The value is not that one supplier can sell every part of this. It is that one party stays accountable for how the parts work together.

A carrier fault, a switch fault, a cloud fault and a handset fault all present on site the same way: the job has stopped. The underlying service levels still belong to whoever owns them, but the diagnosis and the coordination sit in one place, so the project team is not the one proving where the fault lives while the job waits.

“We have just transferred from another IT provider and the service we have received since moving has been exceptional. I wish we had moved sooner!”

Lisa Stefanutti
Administration Manager, Stefanutti Construction
Read the case studies

Questions project teams ask

Can we start before fibre is available?

Usually, where a usable carrier service or another temporary pathway exists. We assess what is actually available, stage the edge equipment, and design how the site moves onto permanent services later. Where the surrounding coverage is poor the honest answer may be an external antenna, another carriage method, or a combination of them, and we say so before anything is ordered.

Do we have to replace Procore, Aconex or the platform we already run?

No. The collaboration and device layer should connect people to the systems already chosen for the project. Any integration is scoped against that platform and the actual workflow; a logo list is not a scope.

Can mobile coverage go in before the building is finished?

Yes, provided the design accepts that the radio environment changes as the structure closes. Some equipment is temporary, some moves, and the final in-building system is validated against the completed structure, because the one it was designed in no longer exists.

Is the Essential Eight mandatory for every construction company?

No. It is mandatory in specific Commonwealth contexts and is increasingly named in procurement, insurance and client requirements. The useful question is who is asking, what maturity level they want, and which systems or contracts are in scope. There is no Essential Eight certification.

Can any of this move to the next project?

Much of it can. Edge equipment, managed devices, cameras and sensors may be redeployed where the next design allows it. Services and licences are reconciled during demobilisation, so the next site starts from a known asset and cost position instead of from zero.

Who supports it when the carrier, the hardware vendor and the application vendor disagree?

We do. The underlying service levels still belong to the relevant vendor or carrier, but diagnosis and coordination sit with one support path. The project team raises one fault and gets one answer.

Before the first team arrives

Nothing here has to be bought all at once. The next project sets the scope: when the first team arrives, what infrastructure exists, what the contract requires, and which failure would cost time first. Sydney sites are attended from the Illawarra.

Scope the next site