Offshore staff
(North Sea) - Telecommunications operator North Sea Communications (NSC) has made interconnection agreements with Tampnett, owned by Statoil, and CNSFTC, owned by BP, linking all the two companies' fiber optical networks in the North Sea. More than NOK 1 billion has been invested in the North Sea's three major optical networks, which are now capable of serving users across the median lines.
NSC's main link is between Stavanger and London via the Draupner, Ekofisk, Murdoch, Ula and Valhall oil fields. Tampnett connects Kollsnes on the Norwegian mainland with the Gullfaks, Kvitebjorn, Snoree and Troll fields, and to Grane, Heindal, Oseberg and Sleipner to the south. CNSFTC links Aberdeen, Cruden Bay, Forties and Everst with the Ula platform.
Under the new arrangement, communications traffic can flow between all nodes in the network. NSC has measured the latency in its Stavanger-Aberdeen circuit to be less than 4.3 m, apparently lower than any land-based link between Norway and the UK.
11/15/05