Texas Energy Network Works 4G Energy Niche

Texas Energy Network has gone live with its first 4G tower site in the Andrews County, Texas, the first of many TEN expects to build as it expands its wireless communications network dedicated to the oil and gas industry. At first blush, you might wonder why. Isn't the wireless space, including mobile broadband, rather well supplied? Well, yes and no. Lots of rural areas--including many aeras where energy companies operate--are in fact not well supplied with fast broadband of any sort, wireless or fixed.

That's a bit of a historical legacy: mobile service up until recently was a service used by people who needed to communicate with other people. Only recently has the notion of machine-to-machine communications arisen as a key growth area for mobile service providers.

"The oil field is a barren place, quite remote," says Greg Casey, Texas Energy Network CEO. There are lots of sensors in operation, and until now, most have been narrowband devices, using a variety of different networks for transport. TEN plans to use leased 4G spectrum to create a single wireless backhaul supporting all requirements of the telemetry, seismic data, pressure data that energy firms typically have to manage.

The advantages, aside from simplicity, include lots more bandwidth. Traditionally, energy company sensor networks have been forced to use networks supporting kilobytes, and now will have access to megabytes. Typically, that leads to creation of new apps, and oil service applications should not prove to be an exception to the rule.

In part, TEN is an outsourcing play. In the past, energy companies, like many other enterprises, have built their own networks. TEN proposes to offload those chores, provide enhanced utility, and cut costs. You might wonder how TEN sources its 4G spectrum. As it turns out, there typically is a third player, even in markets lead by AT&T or Verizon Wireless. Quite often, that spectrum is not yet in commercial use, or there is spare capacity (rural areas are less dense, and therefore have less loading of any available network, compared to urban networks).

For the most part, though, "we are going places where AT&T and Verizon do not go," says Casey. "We are off the beaten path, in the desert and so forth.

"TEN Office" provides a wireless broadband solution with service level agreements of a minimum of 1Mbps of symmetrical bandwidth.

"TEN SCADA" and "SCADA Plus" are designed for the collection of remote telemetry from the field. They are engineered and priced to be deployed in large numbers in remote areas lacking wireline, cellular or electricity. This turnkey communications solution provides an Ethernet and/or RS232 handoff and is designed for low bandwidth applications.

"TEN Alarm" offers the highest-possible SLAs  regarding packet priority and guaranteed bit rate for alarm data, and is offered in a fully-redundant configuration.

"TEN Secure" provides secure, remote monitoring capabilities of field assets that may be prone to trespass, theft, vandalism or require validated entry and remote logging of site access.

"TEN Mobile" is designed to support the communication needs of mobile remote field personnel and provides mobile wireless broadband services that turn any vehicle into a mobile Wi-Fi Hot Spot.