Infrastructure Networks Inc. said Jan. 7 that it has completed a major expansion of its private LTE network, adding capacity in existing areas, doubling geographic coverage and upgrading the network to be 5G-ready. 

The resulting network now covers over 130,000 square-miles across four major energy basins in the Continental U.S.:  Permian/Delaware in West Texas and Southeast New Mexico; Eagle Ford in South Texas; Scoop/Stack in Oklahoma; and Bakken in North Dakota.  INET teamed with Nokia for this network expansion and upgrade, utilizing Nokia Airscale RAN (radio access network) and Wavence Microwave technologies. INET’s LTE network is positioned to meet the mission critical needs of the oil and gas industry across drilling, completions, production and midstream operations.

 “With data generation growing rapidly at the well pad, INET provides the vital link to deliver actionable information and insights to decision-makers in the office. Further, INET partners with advanced analytics providers, allowing them to scale innovative technologies quickly across INET’s installed customer base and to deliver upon the promise of the Industrial Internet (IIoT) in oil and gas operations,” Mark Slaughter, CEO of INET, said.

“Operators, drillers and oilfield service companies can now embrace automation, artificial intelligence analytics and machine learning, only made accessible with next generation, high-bandwidth, low-latency connectivity.  The robustness, reliability and sophistication of our LTE platform brings accessibility at scale to IIoT applications, helping oil and gas operators embrace the digital revolution in the oilfield,” he added.