Some subsea fiber is changing hands, but from a source we haven’t heard too much about. TampNet, which operates infrastructure under the North Sea, has agreed to acquire a similar asset off of the US coast in the Gulf of Mexico.
The fiber in question stretches 1,200km, and has been owned by the energy giant BP. As you might expect, it has been used to serve oil and gas rigs offshore, both for broadband and for backhaul for LTE wireless It stretches from New Orleans, Louisiana over to Houston and Corpus Christi area on the coast of Texas.
Tampnet was already using this infrastructure, and they will now bring it in-house as they look to replicate the model they have in the North Sea. There they are using the fiber to offer connectivity between terrestrial markets as well, but whether that is likely to be a part of things in the Gulf of Mexico is unclear.
Commercial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but if all goes well it should close by the end of 2020.
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Categories: Mergers and Acquisitions · Undersea cables
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That would add some interesting diversity to the terrestrial routes from Houston going east.