Diving for business: Undersea fiber optic buildouts dip into the Gulf of Mexico

Just as hunters travel to where they can find prey, communications networks grow to meet demand, and apparently, demand has seeped into the Gulf of Mexico. That demand has been spurred by the blossoming offshore oil production industry that needs more advanced ways to send voice and data between platforms and to land-based offices.

Now, a provider already supplying platforms in the gulf for cellular and satellite connections, PetroCom Communications, is moving on an idea originally developed and then dropped by Shell Oil and Southern Pacific Railway - to build out a fiber network to reach offshore facilities.

Despite the growing complexity of technologies used, operations in the gulf have been forced to use microwave communications, two-way radios, directional telephone and direct satellite. Microwave signals are susceptible to atmospheric conditions, and satellites are expensive and have limited bandwidth, so a fiber optic network seemed to be a natural progression.

"We saw a very significant bandwidth need," said John Payne, president of PetroCom. The gulf is home to around 20,000 workers and 3700 fixed locations, all with increasing needs for connectivity to land. PetroCom's FiberWeb, planned for operation in September, will connect a network of submarine fiber optic cables and land-based fiber networks from Houston to New Orleans. The company has received equity investments and advice from Tyco Submarine Systems, which is laying the cable, and SAIC, which performed surveys for the cable routes.

The initial network will connect seven key platforms in the gulf and use Fujitsu's Sonet multiplexers at OC-48 speeds, along with General DataComm's multiservice switches. Fujitsu also will serve as the network integrator for the project. To address the last mile, the network will use various technologies, including multichannel multipoint distribution service, spread spectrum and point-to-point microwave.

The Sonet base will provide the benefits of scalability and reliability to the FiberWeb network, said Bill Miller, vice president of data connectivity and broadband services for Fujitsu Business Communications.

"The fiber optic network is going to provide an additional level of reliability for communications in the gulf, as well as the ability to greatly increase the capacity with the Sonet technology," said Roger Krall, vice president of marketing at GDC. GDC also is providing equipment for a similar development to Petrobras, the national energy company in Brazil, which upgraded to an ATM network and ran fiber to oil rigs off the coast, said Krall.

Although 60% to 70% of the revenue for the FiberWeb network will be derived from the oil and gas industry much is expected to be government driven, said Payne.

The network also is expected to be used by several federal agencies as well as the Weapons of Mass Destruction Project - the government's program to fight world terrorism - because of FiberWeb's port coverage.

"With FiberWeb, two of the country's major ports will be covered. [The government] has concerns that a vessel could come to Houston or New Orleans with some sort of biological agent or gas. Now, there are sensors that can detect that when the ships are still off the coast before they get near the ports," said Payne. The FiberWeb will link directly to those sensors.

In the future, PetroCom plans to go into the Red Sea and possibly serve island groupings.