Houston Chronicle by Sergio Chapa Nov. 7, 2019
More Data Than Oil: Bandwidth poised to become next bottleneck in the Permian Basin
At first, there were not enough pipelines to move oil and natural gas to market. Then, it was a lack of water for drilling and hydraulic fracturing operations. And then it was an insufficient number of disposal sites to handle all the wastewater from the oil fields.
Now, bandwidth — the capacity to transmit data over the internet — is poised to become the next big bottleneck in the Permian Basin, the nation’s largest and busiest oil field.
As the oil and gas industry becomes increasingly dependent on digital tools and automation, hundreds of companies are operating in remote areas where cell phone service and internet connectivity can be as sparse as the desert landscape surrounding them.
Cell phone carriers such as AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon provide service along major highways and plan to extend their their reach into the Permian’s expanse across West Texas and southeastern New Mexico, but energy companies say it’s not enough. Seeking to unlock the oil fields full potential and lower production costs through automation, oil and gas producers desperately want greater bandwidth, more broadband options and ultra-fast 5G wireless service that telecommunications companies are beginning to roll out — an endeavor that could cost billions of dollars.
More:
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/More-Data-Than-Oil-Bandwidth-poised-to-become-14815752.php
