Hydromea and Equinor prove subsea wireless link from seabed to cloud

by Clarence Oxford
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Mar 09, 2026
Hydromea and Equinor have completed what they describe as the world's first real-time, high-bandwidth wireless data link from the seabed directly to a cloud environment, demonstrating a subsea-to-satellite broadband chain for offshore assets. In a trial off Norway, Hydromea's SWiG-ready LUMA free-space optical devices formed an underwater wireless local area network that collected data from sensors and autonomous underwater vehicles and pushed that data through Equinor's proprietary DEEPNET network into the company's cloud infrastructure.

The demonstration showed that high volumes of data gathered on the ocean floor can now be streamed wirelessly in real time via a LUMA hotspot to asset operators onshore. This architecture allows subsea vehicles and fixed instruments to deliver immediate status information, inspection data and high-definition video feeds to engineers and underwater intervention drone pilots without waiting for retrieval or manual data offload.

Hydromea's LUMA platform uses high-speed optical communication to move data at rates up to 10 Mbps even at depths approaching 6,000 meters, according to the company. The short-range free-space optical links create a subsea wireless broadband layer that replaces traditional copper or fiber connections for many monitoring and inspection tasks around subsea infrastructure.

By shifting to untethered vehicles and wireless data harvesting, operators can reduce the number of crewed vessels, umbilicals and deck equipment required to support subsea operations. That, in turn, cuts operating costs and lowers the safety risks and environmental footprint associated with sending ships to offshore fields for routine inspection and data collection.

Igor Martin, CEO of Hydromea, said the live system test with Equinor is a key inflection point for subsea digitalization. "This is an important milestone for Hydromea, working with Equinor to show how real-time connectivity for untethered vehicles and data harvesting from sensors will flow wirelessly in real time into an asset operator's cloud for immediate insights into operational matters," he said.

Equinor has been working on standardized subsea docking stations and data infrastructure for drones and intervention vehicles, aiming to create an open, interoperable framework that multiple vendors can use. Integrating Hydromea's high-speed wireless layer into that architecture gives the Norwegian energy group a way to move large datasets from the ocean floor into its existing networks without laying new cables.

The partners say this first end-to-end demonstration is a critical step toward sustainable autonomous subsea operations where resident drones, roaming robots and fixed sensor arrays can remain underwater for extended periods. In such a model, vehicles would dock periodically at subsea stations equipped with LUMA optical modems, offload inspection data and receive new instructions, while operators onshore monitor assets through real-time dashboards powered by the continuous data flow.

Hydromea positions its LUMA technology as a building block for subsea wireless broadband in both oil and gas and offshore renewables. As fields become more complex and more heavily instrumented, the ability to push large amounts of inspection and condition data directly into cloud-based analytics platforms is expected to play a key role in asset integrity management and in meeting net-zero and sustainability goals across the sector.

For Equinor and other energy companies moving toward unmanned platforms and reduced offshore staffing, the subsea-to-cloud link offers a way to maintain or improve situational awareness while keeping people away from hazardous environments. The companies see applications ranging from routine structural inspections and leak detection to real-time support for underwater intervention drones tasked with maintenance and repair.

Hydromea notes that the same optical communication principles can be applied to a variety of subsea scenarios, from shallow-water renewables infrastructure to deepwater production systems. The company is continuing to develop its LUMA product line and integration options so that network operators and system integrators can embed wireless optical links into future subsea fields as a complement to existing wired networks.