Philips 66 Looks to AT&T and Accenture to Plug Coverage Gaps

In September 2019, energy manufacturing and logistics company Philips 66 commissioned AT&T and Accenture to deliver a Proof of Concept (PoC) for a private 4G LTE wireless network at one of the company's facilities in Belle Chase, Louisiana. The facility covers 10 million square feet and the network will utilize AT&T’s public network and edge compute infrastructure, with Accenture providing integration services.

The labyrinth of pipes in facilities such as those operated by Philips 66 presents challenges for implementing a robust telecoms infrastructure to support the use of mobile applications and asset monitoring exercises. The PoC will tackle these challenges by placing sensors throughout the facility to monitor equipment and provide alerts in real time.

Staff move around the facility performing tasks such as tracking capacity levels and safety inspections and often experience gaps in coverage that prevent them from effectively collecting vital data. AT&T is looking to improve coverage and connectivity speeds by utilizing its licensed spectrum. In addition, the data will be more secure as it will be processed via AT&T's Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) solution.

Philips 66 hopes that the spectrum allied with the MEC solution will be the foundation for Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)-based solutions gathering and transmitting data from sensors. However, oil and gas facilities are a more challenging operating environment than a traditional factory given that their sheer number of pipes, pumps, and tanks in a compressed area can obstruct communication signals. AT&T provides coverage across the facility with two cellular towers and is working on patching up any gaps in coverage.

AT&T and Accenture already claim that the network has improved data speeds, with Accenture now looking to bring in complimentary partners to provide Philips 66 with a complete view of its refinery operations and supply chain.

The PoC can act as good reference for AT&T to demonstrate the ability of its edge computing technologies to provide improved speeds for data processing and security. The work being carried out at Philips 66 validates AT&T’s strategy for addressing the needs of industrial firms. In The ABI Insight AT&T’s Advance on Manufacturing: Starts with IT, Ends with OT (IN-5742), we outlined that AT&T is looking to play to its strengths—focus on network connectivity and partner with Systems Integrators (SIs) that can provide the application layer. Furthermore, the launch of MEC solutions will result in SIs engaging with telecommunications providers earlier in a project than they have historically, the impact for AT&T being that the company will be able to position itself as a strategic partner for industrial firms rather than simply provide connectivity.

The example of Philips 66 shows that telecommunications providers and SIs need to work alongside site engineers to bring solutions to bear; patience in regard to delivering a stable connectivity platform in this environment will be required. However, after taking the time ABI Research understands that Philips 66 is contemplating implementing video-based analytics and creating digital twins.

The Philips 66 example also confirms that the SI role as the main partner for digital transformation projects will remain for a while, though it’s notable in this example that Accenture needs to work with engineering as well as technical teams at Philips 66 to deliver the project. In due course, SIs will need to add engineering consultants to their partner rosters to deliver solutions in complex operating environments.