We are living in a top-speed-connectivity-or-bust world – where everyone under the age of 30 has essentially grown up with the Internet. Most businesses shut down completely when their connection goes down and most people in the millennium generation find it difficult to find food or friends without a GPS smartphone and a Twitter account.
   Crew welfare connectivity has been a crucial element to attract workers from generations X and Y to work on drilling rigs. But, it will become a required element for the millennial generation. Very few people younger than 30 can go a whole day without streaming video as flash players now dominate almost every major news, information, social and sports information Web site. Netflix and Hulu are no longer luxuries, they are considered basic standards of living.
   Many rig operators tell me that crew morale impact on the onshore drilling market has changed, as younger crew members will not work for two weeks straight on a rig with no contact with friends and loved ones.They also use the Web to pay bills, attend distance learning classes and even visit doctors. All of these applications require considerable stores of bandwidth. Rig owners are now taking notice and are beginning to segregate bandwidth for the crew’s use during breaks in their shifts.
   To mitigate connection issues and costs, rig owners are allotting limited bandwidth to crews and enforcing quality of service policies and guidelines for use. It is a reasonable measure, but it doesn’t come without a warning. The younger your crew gets, the more it will become expected to have access to unrestricted and constant connectivity.