24th June 2013

Satellites to provide broadband speed to billions of under-connected people across the world

O3b, the world's first fiber-speed satellite network, is launching its first four satellites into orbit.

O3b started as a visionary idea six years ago in the jungles of Rwanda, to solve the challenge of limited affordable international connectivity. It has now become a state-of-the-art satellite network that will soon provide billions of people across Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific access to fast and affordable internet for the first time. The name "O3b" stands for "[The] Other 3 Billion", referring to the population of the world where broadband Internet is not currently available without help. The company has backing from high profile names including Google and HSBC.

The first four O3b satellites have been built, tested and are now poised on top of a Soyuz rocket, waiting to be launched into orbit. O3b's ground systems around the world are in place ready to communicate with and operate these newly delivered satellites, which are due to be launched tomorrow at 18:54 UTC from the Guiana Space Centre. A live webcast will be available at ArianeSpace.tv.

Brian Holz, O3b Chief Technology Officer: "We are ready. The countdown has begun. In a few short hours, our satellites will be coming over the horizon for the first time. We are very close to launching a network that has the potential to change lives in very tangible ways and that is a tremendous feeling."

O3b's next four satellites will be launched in September and full operations will start in November. All eight satellites will be placed at an altitude of 8,063 km (5,009 mi), a Medium-Earth Orbit that is a quarter of the distance from Earth than traditional geostationary (GEO) telecommunications craft, which orbit some 36,000 km above the planet. This should substantially reduce the delay, or latency, of the signal as the voice or data traffic is routed via space. Each satellite will be equipped with 12 fully steerable Ka band antennas, with a throughput of 1.2 Gbit/s per beam – resulting in a total network capacity of 115 GBit/s. The company hopes to eventually put 20 satellites into orbit.

Worldwide, the number of Internet users currently stands at 2.5 billion, a figure expected to reach 5 billion by 2020 thanks to exponential technology improvements.

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