The petroleum, natural gas, and petrochemical industries place high requirements on level measurement, or the instrumentation techniques designed to measure the height of a fluid or solid within a containing vessel. Besides instruments of traditional technologies like differential pressure level meters, there are also level meters of radar, magnetostrictive, and magnetic float, etc. applied extensively.

The petroleum and gas industry is an important segment where level meters witness high growth over recent years. As China improves the industrial technologies of extracting and transporting oil, some new high-end level meters will have a wide application in this segment.

One of the problems with a significant number of technologies is that they are installed through a nozzle and are exposed to products. This can create several problems, especially when retrofitting new equipment to vessels that have already been stress relieved, as it may not be possible to fit the instrument at the location required. Also, as the measuring element is exposed to the contents within the vessel it may either attack or coat the instrument causing it to fail in service. One of the most reliable methods for measuring level is using a Nuclear density gauge, a tool used in civil construction and the petroleum industry, as well as for mining and archaeology purposes, as it is installed outside the vessel and doesn’t normally require a nozzle for bulk level measurement. The measuring element is installed outside the process and can be maintained in normal operation \without taking a shutdown. Shutdown is only required for an accurate calibration.

With a total value of $44 billion, the backhaul market is seeing robust growth as well as increased competition as global data traffic surges. Mobile operators have been looking for ways to meet the growing traffic, and Alcatel-Lucent is optimistic their new, comprehensive backhaul portfolio will be the perfect solution for mobile operators. The Paris-based global telecommunications company has unveiled new products which combine technologies such as macro and micro cells, and pico cells which can be installed on any convenient structure to deliver Wi-Fi services. Mobile operators expect traffic demands to grow up to ten times, and Alcatel is offering their products to help decongest high traffic areas. These new products are introduced across three categories: backhaul over microwave, backhaul over fibre, and copper. The expanded backhaul solutions include the IightRadio: a base station technology which can be deployed either as picocells or stacked as micro or macro cells. According to Alcatel, the new products will allow mobile operators to manage their networks more efficiently, and address the massive demand for bandwidth.

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Businesses today rely on Internet communications for their growth, and many organizations use the cyber-sphere for their operations and management. Reliable Internet communications is thus, necessary in a competitive, globalized environment.

NewSat Ltd, Australia's leading satellite communications specialist, delivers backhauling solutions between their teleports. The company's Adelaide and Perth teleport facility are connected with all the major Australian telecommunications providers, and are also interconnected to various terrestrial fibre networks.

This key-feature of NewSat Ltd's ground facilities allows them to deliver terrestrial backhaul transmission that is reliable. Some of the connections include dual geographically diversified links with Telstra and multiple fibre links from Optus, AAPT and AmCom. As well as the traditional fibre network, the Perth Teleport is directly linked to the central business district by LOS microwave links.

If you would like to know more about how NewSat can deliver your business or organizations backhauling solutions, call +61 3 9674 4644.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has suspended “special access” rules that favored incumbent carriers. These special access providers will no longer enjoy pricing flexibility when provisioning high capacity circuits to competitive providers and enterprise customers.

According to the original rules lain down in 1999, the FCC would regulate special access rates. However, if certain geographic areas met prerequisite competitive showings, the FCC would also provide carriers with pricing flexibility. This allowed carriers to offer “special access” services to their customers at unregulated rates.

From backhauling traffic from cell towers for wireless providers, to connecting the facilities of competitive carriers to enterprise customers, and transporting Internet traffic from various facilities to carrier points of presence, special access serves as the telecom industry's middle mile workhorse.

Special access providers are usually large incumbent carriers. Their customers have claimed that special access providers raise prices above competitive levels even if there are no real competitors in the area.

The response from special access providers is that the market for special access is indeed competitive and that they are still subject to rate regulation from the FCC.