Google backed satellite venture promises broadband from the skies

By Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 10 September 2008 02:40

Networking

O3b Networks - backed by Google, Liberty Global and HSBC - plans to launch a multi-satellite network that wil deliver "fibre performance over satellite at prices comparable to fibre" enabling ISPs and telcos in developing nations to deliver "cost-effective voice and broadband services at speeds equivalent to those enjoyed in the developed world."

O3b Networks' target markets is countries where the deployment of high-capacity fibre backhaul is restricted by geographic, economic or political barriers. It claims that operational and technical development is well underway and that production of the initial constellation of 16 satellites has begun with service activation scheduled for late 2010. "The system's 2,300 transponder equivalents will deliver low-latency Internet backhaul at speeds reaching 10Gbps."

The satellites are being built by French company Thales Alenia Space. They will be low orbit satellites with a round trip transmission delay of 0.1 seconds, compared to almost 0.5 seconds for geostationary satellites. Each satellite will have a capacity of 10Gbps. They will be in equatorial orbit at a height of 8.063kms which means each will take 288 minutes to orbit the earth enabling continuous coverage to be provided from only six satellites. Eight satellites will be launched initially and sixteen more in the 18 months following the initial launch.

O3b promises a total system capacity of over 160Gbps. However because the satellites are low earth orbit, all communications from a particular region will have to go through whichever satellites are in view at any given time and will have to be switched to other satellite or satellites as each one disappears over the horizon. So far O3b has given no indication of how it will manage this handover seamlessly, or how it will manage local congestion on a particular satellite.

Also the satellites will operate in the Ka band, which is subject to rain attenuation that could result in loss of service during monsoons or other heavy rainfall periods.

Coverage will be available only between latitudes of 45 degrees North and South. This would give coverage of all the major land masses in the Southern Hemisphere except Antarctica and the Southern tip of New Zealand and in the Northern Hemisphere, almost the whole of China, the USA and Southern Europe.
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