Company Updates Current Oil & Gas Division Activities and Highlights Recent Significant Achievements
ERF Wireless (OTCBB:ERFW), a leading provider of enterprise-class wireless and broadband products and services, announced today that the company's Oil & Gas Services Division is significantly increasing its expansion of wireless coverage as well as its sales and marketing activities in 2010 in response to the oil and gas industry's growing interest in "real-time" communication systems that are several times faster and more reliable than traditional satellite-based systems.
According to Dr. H. Dean Cubley, CEO of ERF Wireless, "Our company's continued focus on the oil and gas industry in 2010 is a reflection of the commitment that ERF Wireless has made to becoming the dominate provider of terrestrial wireless broadband communications to the North American oil and gas industry. Our activities over the past year established ERF Wireless as the largest terrestrial wireless broadband network covering the major oil and gas regions in North America. Now, we see 2010 as the year in which our oil-and-gas-related revenues will start to dominate the overall ERF Wireless business plan both through our existing contracts as well as new contracts we are currently developing."
During the past year, the Oil & Gas Services Division of ERF Wireless has already reached a significant number of our strategic objectives that include:
- Entering into a mutually exclusive reseller contract, including guaranteed minimum revenues to ERF Wireless, with the world's leading oil and gas service company to supply terrestrial wireless broadband communications services to its customers throughout North America, including the Gulf of Mexico.
- Obtaining FCC registration for approximately ninety 3.65-GHz WiMAX transmission locations under the ERF Wireless nationwide 3.65-GHz license that provides broadband coverage for the most strategic oil and natural gas development and production areas in the United States. Several of these locations are already in operation and producing revenue. This new technology will make terrestrial broadband services available to almost 30,000 square miles of additional energy exploration and production geography and will reach almost half of the active drilling sites currently in operation in the continental United States.
- Completing the acquisition of Frontier Internet LLC and iTexas.net, both headquartered in Granbury, Texas, that brought a combined existing customer base of more than 1,800 customers and over $1,300,000 in profitable recurring annual WISP revenue in addition to significant new oil and gas revenue as a result of coverage and capabilities in the Barnett Shale region of North Texas. Through these acquisitions ERF Wireless gained access to a large geographic area in Texas that includes coverage in Hood, Somervell, Johnson, Erath and Parker counties within the Barnett Shale area that covers approximately 6,000 square miles of natural gas and oil production territory.
- Signing Master Services Agreements with ISPs in New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas and Canada to deliver ERF Wireless' digital oilfield solutions to mobile and static oil and gas sites throughout a combined coverage area of some 100,000 square miles. These new coverage areas include most of the strategic oil and gas production areas of North America including most of the Alberta Providence of Canada. In addition, ERF Wireless is currently deploying broadband services into the British Columbia Horn River area for some of the larger oil-and-gas-related companies.
- Placing a $4.7-million order and taking initial deliveries for Mobile Broadband Trailers (MBTs) that will provide an additional 321 MBTs to be deployed into North American oil and gas customer locations.
- ERF Wireless is also expanding its reach beyond its existing terrestrial wireless broadband footprint by providing resold VSAT satellite services to many of its oil and gas customers where it is currently impractical to establish a terrestrial broadband network. These resold VSAT services provide ERF Wireless a very profitable wireless capability for these customers and positions ERF Wireless as a "one stop" communications company for all their communication needs.
- ERF Wireless is currently working with a number of oil and gas companies in the deployment of wireless broadband communications services in support of monitoring and controlling existing oil and gas production facilities. A significant number of these applications have already been deployed in 2009 and more are under way in 2010. These Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) requirements are widespread throughout North America and represent recurring revenue for many years.
- While the oil and gas wireless broadband requirements are driving the locations of new acquisitions and the deployment of resources, ERF Wireless is finding that there are numerous other wireless needs under these footprints. One example is that of control and monitoring devices ranging from security to agricultural irrigation. It is anticipated that many new customers will be developed in these related industries as the oil and gas wireless footprints are developed.
- In addition, ERF Wireless has recently completed the initial deployments of part of its MBT fleet in support of oil and gas customer requirements for well workovers on certain existing oil and gas wells and for new well completions. Referred sometimes as "fracture stimulation" or "FRAC" jobs for existing mature wells, they require the same level of communications as existing new drilling operations. There are hundreds of thousands of existing wells throughout North America and ERF Wireless has already received substantial commitments for 2010 from its oil and gas customers for this new area of wireless business.
"Our Oil & Gas Division was certainly a contributor to our ranking last year as the 113th fastest growing company in North America on Deloitte's 2009 Technology Fast 500™," said Dr. Cubley. "We expect it will make an even bigger contribution to the company's growth in 2010."
About ERF Wireless
ERF Wireless Inc. is a fully reporting public corporation located in League City, Texas, and is the parent company of ERF Oil & Gas Services, ERF Enterprise Network Services, ERF Bundled Wireless Services, ERF Wireless Messaging Services and ERF Network Services. The company specializes in providing wireless and broadband product and service solutions to enterprise, commercial and residential clients on a regional, national and international basis. Its principals have been in the wireless broadband, network integration, triple-play FTTH, IPTV and content delivery business for more than 40 years. For more information, please visit our websites at www.erfwireless.com and www.erfwireless.net or call 281-538-2101. (ERFWG)
Forward-looking statements in this release regarding ERF Wireless Inc. are made pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, continued acceptance of the company's products, increased levels of competition, new products and technological changes, the company's dependence upon third-party suppliers, intellectual property rights, and other risks detailed from time to time in the company's periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Contacts:
ERF Wireless Inc.
Clareen O'Quinn, 281-538-2101 ext. 113
coquinn@erfwireless.com
or
Rubenstein
Investor Relations Inc.
Tim Clemensen, 212-843-9337
tclemensen@rubensteinir.com
