Peabody Energy Selects Rajant and Wagner Equipment for Wireless Communications System

September 23, 2008 3:28 AM EDT

MALVERN, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Rajant Corporation, a leading provider of portable mobile wireless networking solutions, announced today that it has entered into a reseller agreement with Denver-based Wagner Equipment Co. (Wagner) to distribute and support its BreadCrumb(R) wireless mesh communications product line. In addition, Wagner has successfully commissioned a mine-wide deployment of BreadCrumbs at the Peabody El Segundo operation for a Machine Guidance Control System.

Peabody Energy (NYSE: BTU) is the world's largest private-sector coal company, with 2007 sales of 238 million tons and $4.6 billion in revenues. Peabody's coal products fuel approximately 10 percent of all U.S. electricity generation and 2 percent of worldwide electricity. The El Segundo Mine, located in Northwest New Mexico is ramping up to produce 6 million tons of coal per year to serve rapidly expanding electricity needs in the Southwest.

"Rajant is very proud to be partnered with Wagner, part of the worldwide Caterpillar dealer network," said Frank Olivieri, Director of Mining Business Development for Rajant. "Wagner has a great reputation in the mining industry and winning the confidence of Peabody Energy is a great endorsement of the Rajant BreadCrumb wireless mesh solution."

Through Wagner, the exclusive Caterpillar dealer in the area, the El Segundo mine is using Rajant BreadCrumb(R) systems as the wireless mobile network for Caterpillar's CAESultra(R) equipped tractors in an interconnected wireless, meshed, self-healing network that also allows trucks, shovels, dozers, VoIP Phones, and laptops to communicate with each other in real-time. Many devices that require wireless communications are constantly on the move throughout the mine and the BreadCrumb(R) nodes will be able to rapidly adapt to any changes in the network topology, assuring that IP traffic uptime and bandwidth are maximized.

"Wagner is excited to be an authorized Rajant reseller", said Jeff Gartz, Sales Development Manager for Wagner Equipment. "The Rajant BreadCrumb(R) solution is already helping mining companies such as Peabody Energy become more efficient with their operations. Because of their ability to adapt and scale, we think the Rajant technology will prove to be a competitive advantage to those companies who choose to deploy it."

A unique benefit of a Rajant network is that no 'root node', central access point or 'LAN controller' is required, thus eliminating extra network latency and single points of failure. The adherence to open standards by Rajant allows the tractors to receive high precision RTK GPS corrections and share terrain data in real-time through peer-to-peer communications by the BreadCrumbs.

About Rajant:

Rajant Corporation enables secure communications-on-the-move through a portable meshed wireless network that can rapidly reconfigure and adapt in real-time. Rajant's BreadCrumb(R) Wireless solutions provide networks for Mining, Homeland Security, Military, First Responders and Public Safety and provide voice and data communications across a meshed, self-healing network. Rajant's BreadCrumb network nodes communicate with IP based client devices such as laptops, PDAs, video cameras, satellite terminals, networked radios, RFID's and sensor devices. Please visit www.rajant.com or call (484) 595-0233.

About Wagner Equipment Co.:

Wagner Equipment Co. is the exclusive Caterpillar dealer in Colorado, New Mexico and Far West Texas. Through Wagner International, they also serve Mongolia, Siberia and the Russian Far East. Since 1976, Wagner sells and rents quality Cat machines used in heavy construction, building construction, mining, waste handling, paving, municipal and governmental applications, forestry, and more. Please visit www.wagnerequipment.com or call (303) 739-3000.

Source: Rajant Corporation

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