2012-built rig in digital era pursuit as Island Drilling awards five-year gig to Tampnet

August 21, 2025, by Melisa Cavcic

With digitalization spreading its wings across offshore operations, Norway’s offshore drilling contractor Island Drilling has handed out a multi-year deal to Tampnet, a compatriot provider of offshore high-capacity and low-latency connectivity services, to enhance the digital capabilities of its semi-submersible rig ahead of its upcoming assignment in the North Sea.

Island Innovator rig; Source: Island Drilling

The five-year connected rig contract with Island Drilling will see Tampnet deliver a fully managed private 4G/5G network on the Island Innovator harsh-environment rig, combining low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite back-haul from Starlink and One Web, integrated with the Tampnet North Sea LTE and T-FAST multiple carrier, low-footprint, high-speed antenna microwave/fibre backbone to ensure seamless connectivity wherever the rig operates.

Combining this with an AI-driven orchestration layer that automatically routes each packet over the optimal path, the fully managed private 4G/5G network is described as delivering seamless mobility and digitalization across the entire rig. The solution is said to enable advanced capabilities, such as remote inspections, predictive maintenance, and real-time crew support, seen as crucial for safety, efficiency, and cost reduction.

Trygve Hagevik, CCO of Tampnet, commented: “A well-connected rig is no longer a nice-to-have; it’s the backbone for remote operations and data-driven decision-making. By blending LEO, LTE and LOS/fibre with real-time AI traffic steering and Private Network, we’re giving Island Drilling the performance and resilience they need – plus the freedom to scale advanced use cases such as predictive maintenance, digital twins and autonomous inspections.”

Tampnet claims that this contract delivers hybrid back-haul, AI-based orchestration with path-selection and QoS tuned in real time to application needs, end-to-end private 4G/5G allowing seamless mobility for people, sensors, drones, and robotics, alongside edge-ready architecture that supports digital twins, AR/VR, remote expert video, and mission-critical voice/data.

The Norwegian firm also highlights that the deal comes with guaranteed SLAs and 24/7 NOC support from its operations centers. The deployment of the solution is expected to be fully operational before the Island Innovator rig, which secured a drilling job with Equinor a few months ago, begins its next North Sea campaign in Q4 2025.

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Project & Tenders

The 2012-built Island Innovator rig is a sixth-generation semi-submersible drilling, well intervention, and completion unit of GM4000 WI enhanced design.

Roger Simmens, CEO of Island Drilling, underlined: “The Island Innovator operates in some of the world’s toughest conditions. Tampnet’s multi-layer network and private 5G capability will let our crews work smarter and safer while enabling our rig for the digital future.”

As Tampnet continues to grow its connected rig business, following recent wins with drilling contractors, the firm also recently landed a deal with Vår Energi to deploy its technology on a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) in the North Sea.