O3b gets Christmas gift
October 28, 2014
By Chris Forrester
O3b is the SES and Google-backed satellite constellation planning to reach the “other 3 billion” people who do not have adequate Internet access. It currently has 8 satellites in orbit and its next quartet of satellites will launch into space on December 18th.
The launch will complete Phase 1 of O3b’s plans. The satellites will be lifted by an Arianespace rocket from French Guiana to an orbit of 8062 km above the ground, and help add to the current 4 Gb/s of bandwidth that’s serving users in the Pacific, Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
“We are excited to be launching our third set of satellites ahead of schedule. The speed of our connections and the applications that we are able to support across our low-latency network are driving incredibly strong demand across all segments. These additional satellites will provide more capacity and drive even higher performance.”
“2014 has been a massively exciting year for O3b, the year in which we launched commercial service and started to truly deliver on the promise that we have made to our customers. Launching before the end of the year will set us up for a spectacular 2015.”
Other posts by Chris Forrester:
- Eutelsat: “What a mess”
- Bank: “Starlink 18 months ahead on D2D”
- AST SpaceMobile trims satellite demand
- Amazon’s Kuiper-1 launch brought forward
- SES and Eutelsat possibly in line for C-band $bn bonus
- Consultant: “European satellite mergers are failing”
- Ligado attempts to unravel Inmarsat L-band agreement
- SpaceX complains over South Africa investment rules
- Vodafone, AST test video call game changer