AN offshore communications company which has designed a unique device to help workers maintain radio contact is expanding its market in Scandinavia.Lowestoft-based Fern Communications has been a provider of two-way communication systems to the oil and gas industry since it was set up in 2002.

AN offshore communications company which has designed a unique device to help workers maintain radio contact is expanding its market in Scandinavia.

Lowestoft-based Fern Communications has been a provider of two-way communication systems to the oil and gas industry since it was set up in 2002.

Last year, the company created a unique radio repeater which can direct signals around solid structures so that workers on oil rigs and gas platforms never lose reception when in confined or dangerous places.

Now Fern Communications is working with Norwegian company West Communication AS as its sole agent to promote the use of the product in Scandinavia.

The two businesses have already worked together to use the FRX-1 radio repeater to make portable radio contact more reliable for companies which clean and maintain refineries in Norway.

Clive Cushion, Fern Communications' technical director, said: 'As it turned out, in addition to their gas and oil customers in Norway, they were keen to offer this particular client a cost-effective way to enhance radio communications while cleaning refinery tunnels.

'We discussed the fact that by using our FRX-1 radio repeater technology, we could provide them with a straightforward solution. It's heartening to see our technology used in innovative ways that enhance communications so effectively, both on and offshore.'

Fern Communications, which has a workshop on the Pinbush Industrial Estate in Lowestoft, already exports its systems worldwide to companies in Kazakhstan, Iran, Sweden, The Netherlands, Africa and Hong Kong.