Later this year, if all goes as planned, a Space X Falcon 9 will lift off with the first of the satellites that will help bring our innovative new global communication system online. Called O3b mPOWER, it’s a next-generation system that builds on the proven technology of our current O3b Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) constellation to bring high-performance services that scale to multiple gigabits per second per connection virtually anywhere on the globe.
Whether on land or at sea, we have all been reminded of the importance of connectivity throughout the past year’s events. And with digital transformation accelerating across multiple industry sectors, low-latency, high-speed, and reliable connectivity is going to become ever-more critical to business success.
O3b, launched in 2013, has already proved the business case for case for satellite connectivity. Its 20 MEO satellites already provide services to four of the top five cruise lines, four out of the top six oil and gas super majors, and 15 million end users on mobile networks.
O3b mPOWER will take all that to the next level, giving users access to the new breed of bandwidth-intensive network services and applications that are driving digital transformation. With a footprint between 50?N and 50?S and covering 96% of the world’s population, its terabit-level system capacity is based on the dynamic ability to deliver thousands of uncontested managed services and satisfy demands for throughout in a range that scales from hundreds of Mbps up to multiple Gbps with robust SLAs. It will also provide an express route to all the major cloud service providers with our new Cloud Direct solution.
This is not a gradual availability of service over years. Once O3b mPOWER is turned on next year its coverage is worldwide and instantaneous, enabling gigabit connectivity on land, sea, and air for a wide variety of customers. Use cases include mobility for cruise, commercial shipping, and aero; telcos and cloud providers; government, military, and NGOs; and enterprise with oil, gas, mining, and other businesses.
As SES has done for decades, we look to leverage our partnerships with service providers, integrators and other technology partners. We understand the value that local companies provide in knowing their communities and providing in-country support. Diego Paldao, Commercial Development, O3b mPOWER says Tower Companies are well positioned to enable Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to expand their reach. Eliminating the need for traditional fiber backhaul availability, with O3b mPOWER Tower Companies and SES can partner to offer MNOs access to any new markets. “O3b mPOWER provides redundancy, resiliency and reach with multi-gigabit low latency backhaul, not available previously or from any other system,” he added.
It has also already attracted its first major customer wins before launch, with Princess Cruises and Orange both already signing up for O3b mPOWER service to enhance their services and reach. More will be announced in the coming months.
The number of connected devices and demand for bandwidth-intensive applications continues to soar, and increasing quantities of data require flexible high-bandwidth, low-latency connectivity at the edge of the global internet. And that, from next year onwards, is precisely what O3b mPOWER is designed to provide.
Learn more or contact diego.paldao@ses.com
