BROADBAND & BARRELS

Think you've got remote customers who are demanding? Try serving up broadband to oil rigs 300 miles offshore. Or perhaps you'd prefer dragging DSL to the construction site of a dam or to a town recently devastated by a tornado. CapRock Communications, which at one time was a classic CLEC but now makes its money with satellite-based services, is doing just that but adding another twist.

The company recently launched Wireless IPxpress, a service that combines an MPLS-based satellite backbone with Wi-Fi. Using an 802.11 b/g access point on-site connected to the company's backbone, users can maintain secure connections in harsh environments.

“The thing that makes oil and gas particularly interesting is that there are multiple tenants on each site,” said David Myers, vice president of marketing and product management. “We become a mini-central office on site.”

With soft phones on laptops, users also can make voice calls.

“It all runs over the same airwaves, but it's how we manage the quality of service that makes it different,” Myers said.