Following the participation in the Royal State Visit to South Africa by the Norwegian King Harald and Queen Sonja last year, Norphonic has been accepted into a Government-funded Trade Programme designed to establish relations between Norwegian and South African businesses. The company will focus its efforts on targeting the mining market, one of the largest industries in South Africa.

Norphonic specialises in manufacturing heavy duty telephones for areas exposed to extreme temperatures, wet and dirty environments. The telephones are based on VoIP technology which enables a mining company to make use of their existing IP network to make telephone calls to and from their mines. Comments Helge Rognstad, Global Sales and Marketing Director at Norphonic "Our research shows that our telephones have an ideal application in the mining industry, where robust mining phones are needed to improve communication and security for exposed mining workers".

Norphonic sees South Africa as being a natural stepping stone to access other important mining markets, according to Rognstad: "South Africa already has a very advanced economy with good infrastructure. The country also has excellent connections to other important mining markets such as Zambia, Namibia and Botswana. We therefore feel it is natural to start our investment in South Africa and use this as a gateway to other important African markets where metals such as Gold, Platinum, Zinc and Copper are excavated".

The Norwegian Trade Program is organised by Innovation Norway, a government organisation that aims to promote Norwegian products and services in South Africa.

Comments Bjørn Eriksen, Commercial Counselor at the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Johannesburg: "Our services include helping companies with internationalisation by way of creating close relationship between Norwegian and South African businesses. We are currently assisting Norphonic and we hope to introduce their mining phones to relevant South African telecom integrators when Norphonic visits the South Africa later this year".

For more information, or to contact Norphonic about this initiative, please contact us.

This story first appeared in Mining Weekly.