O3b Press Kit From Vision to Reality
Contents 2 3 Contents 4 Message to all Media 5 O3b Satellites Fast Facts We believe in a world where 6 7 The O3b Story affordable, high-speed connectivity is always within reach. 4 8 9 The O3b Story 8 9 The O3b Story 10 About O3b - Management 11 O3b Products - O3b Investors - O3b Equipment Partners Steve Collar CEO, O3b Networks
4 5 Message to all media O3b Satellites - Fast Facts 4 5 Message to all media O3b Satellites Fast Facts MEDIA On 10 July, 2014 O3b Networks will launch 4 satellites from Le Centre Spatial Guyanais in Kourou, French Guiana. These are the latest addition to O3b s Medium Earth Orbit constellation which is transforming broadband connectivity to many areas of the world. The Launch completes an initial constellation designed to connect the Other 3 billion (hence the name O3b) people on earth who currently don t have any or good quality access to the internet. We know your time is precious and deadline-driven, so we have provided this concise document to offer an overview of O3b s unique story, and the importance of this launch of the next four satellites which will complete our initial constellation. All relevant facts can be found in this Press Kit, and we have links throughout the document to enable you to go deeper into customer and company information. There is also a link to an image gallery. We would be delighted to speak with you, and share our passion about this bold journey to bring broadband communications to the Other 3 billion people on the planet who don t currently have it. O3b s CEO, Steve Collar and other senior management will be available for interviews from the launch site at Le Centre Spatial. If you would like to arrange an interview, please contact: Fast Facts Designed, integrated and tested by Thales Alenia Space Launched by Arianespace on a Russian Soyuz 2 Launch vehicle Ka-Band satellites orbital spacing: 45 Satellites orbital height: 8,062km -Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) Ground period: 360 min / number of contacts: 4 per day Provides global coverage 10 beams per satellite totalling 70 remote beams per 8 satellite constellation Over 1.2Gbps per beam (600Mbps x 2) 84Gbps available per 8 satellite constellation Beam coverage: 700km diameter Transponder bandwidth: 216MHz; 2 x 216MHz per beam Craig Breheny Director, Brunswick Tel: +44 20 7396 7429 Fax: +44 20 7936 7729 Mobile: +44 7974 982 429 Email: cbreheny@brunswickgroup.com Vicki Warker VP Marketing O3b Networks Tel: +1 202 813 4023 Mobile: +1 202 340 7120 Email: vicki.warker@o3bnetworks.com
6 7 The O3b Story The O3b Story 6 7 The O3b Story O3b is a unique Story company with a unique history. Company founder, Greg Wyler, first conceived the idea in 2005 as he worked to provide a nationwide telephone service in rural Rwanda. While wiring a post-war and economically shattered country was a big enough challenge, connecting it to the rest of the world through a skinny, lowspeed satellite link bottlenecked all communication outside the country. At the time, Rwanda like many countries and rural areas today had no international fiber connections. Wyler felt there had to be a better way. In 2007 he and a small group of investors including Google and Liberty Global started O3b Networks. O3b stands for the Other 3 Billion people who don t have high-speed connectivity to the Internet today. Wyler met with satellite experts, and they developed a design for a new constellation of satellites that orbit much closer to the earth than legacy geosynchronous (GEO) satellites, while also using a different frequency that provides much higher throughput at a lower cost. Since the signals travel a much shorter distance and the new frequency provides significantly higher throughput, these satellites are not a bottleneck to communication outside of Rwanda, or any remote or rural area that is not connected by terrestrial fiber optic cables. The result is a network that combines the global reach of satellite with the speed of a fiber optic network, delivering broadband connectivity everywhere on Earth within 45 degrees of latitude north and south of the equator. Compared to the conventional Geostationary Orbit (GEO) satellites currently available, O3b s network utilizes MEO (Medium Earth Orbit) satellites at much lower altitudes. This means that O3b can offer fiber-like speeds with lower latency at more affordable wholesale pricing. On July 10, 2014 the second set of four satellites will launch from Kourou, French Guiana. The company is already providing services to remote areas, following the launch of its first 4 satellites in 2013, bringing truly high-speed broadband services at the same standards experienced in Paris, London, Tokyo or New York to the other 3 billion. Who are we serving? So who are the other 3 billion? In short, they are people and businesses in geographically remote or fairly inaccessible places. O3b Networks has chosen to serve the greatest number of people by offering services to Internet Service Providers (ISPs), telecom providers, enterprises, and governments rather than individuals. Here are the stories for some of our customers: The Democratic Republic of Congo The Democratic Republic of Congo is the third most populated country in Africa with 70 million people. The capital city of Kinshasa, home to 10 million, relies on traditional satellites as well as fiber and microwave links to connect to the World Wide Web. Because traditional satellites orbit at 36,000km or 22,000 miles above the earth, it takes communication, at the speed of light, about 500 milliseconds to bounce off a traditional satellite. That might not seem like a lot of time but it is a very perceptible delay in a phone conversation, while playing an online game, or using sophisticated business software for managing inventory. In fact, it is such a long delay (known as latency in the Communications industry) that people speaking over a satellite link will shorten conversations, interactive gaming is an extremely poor experience and many Web-based business software programs simply won t function. A DRC-based ISP signed a contract with O3b to deliver high-speed broadband to the entire country. When the ISP connects to O3b the country will immediately go from being one of the most poorly connected countries on earth, to one of the best. The ISP will offer consumers, businesses, medical and educational facilities Internet connectivity on par with major international cities around the world, closing a digital divide. O3b Image library - click here
8 9 The O3b Story The O3b Story 8 9 American Samoa American Samoa Telecommunications Authority (ASTCA) provides a local service covering the main island and the principal outer islands of American Samoa and offers long distance connections. More than 80% of the households in American Samoa subscribe to a telephone service provided by ASTCA. They are currently rolling out fiber to every premise and school in American Samoa as part of the federally funded national broadband programme (BLAST). American Samoa, located midway between Honolulu and Sydney, has a single undersea fiber connection to the island, as well as a legacy GEO satellite connection. When there is a fiber cable outage, the entire population knows all Internet traffic must struggle to push through the traditional satellite connection of limited capacity and latency over 500 milliseconds, dramatically slowing all Internet traffic. Every user on the island must compete for bandwidth and experience the hassles of traditional satellite latency. ASTCA has signed a deal for O3b services. On the first day the O3b constellation is operational, ASTCA will double the broadband capacity available to territory residents. The new capacity will improve network speeds, network reliability, and will provide redundancy, should the undersea fiber-optic system fail. The agreement between ASTCA and O3b changes the broadband landscape significantly by bringing fiber-optic capacities at prices and terms that are affordable and economically feasible for the islands service providers. East Timor East Timor is a very young country, achieving national sovereignty in 2002. Its people are young too, with the median age of only 18.5 years. The population is eager to use Internet services, but until recently the only option for connectivity was a traditional GEO satellite connection. In 2012, a new service provider was awarded the exclusive right to bring a submarine cable to the island nation, which put the formerly state owned incumbent Timor Telecom, at a distinct disadvantage. However, Timor Telecom just went live with their commercial service using O3b s network, and the improvement for its customers was immediate and dramatic. Instantly there was an increase in connection speed and performance. For the first time Timor Telecom customers can watch movies from start to finish without interruption, as well as enjoy online gaming. Timor Telecom now boasts throughput and latency comparable to its competitor, while also remaining competitive on price. Royal Caribbean International O3b s steerable satellite beams will provide cruise industry passengers ultra-fast Internet communications throughout their voyage. In 2012, O3b announced an agreement with Royal Caribbean Cruises to provide high-speed broadband service aboard the world s largest cruise ship delivered by O3b s new satellite constellation. More than 8,000 guests, staff and crew members aboard the cruise industry leader s flagship Oasis of the Seas under the Royal Caribbean International brand will enjoy O3b s enhanced connectivity at sea as if connected to fiber at home or in the office. Up until now, a cruise ship of this size would typically be connected with about a 4Mb satellite link. RCL made a strategic decision to provide guests connectivity to Internet, social media and business applications comparable to what they would get at home or in the office when signing a deal for nearly 400Mb of O3b s low-latency, high-speed connectivity. Government and non-governmental entities Governments, militaries and nongovernmental organizations like the United Nations have world-wide operations, often in remote and isolated locations that do not have access to reliable communications. These operations include a combination of permanent facilities and conflict/disaster event-driven locations that may only exist for a relatively short period of time. The steerable beams on O3b s satellites offer communications to both permanent and temporary sites. In all cases, these operations require reliable communications that allow the remote locations to operate in the same manner as a headquarters location with a modern, well established telecommunications infrastructure. Often data-rich communications require high throughputs in excess of 100Mbps, and headquarters comparable latency to ensure high-quality voice communications and interoperability with time sensitive applications like enterprise resource planning. O3b can provide throughputs in excess of 1.2Gbps, with latencies comparable to fiber. And, in today s fiscally constrained government environment, communications affordability is key. O3b s powerful high speed, low latency communications will be significantly more cost-effective than traditional satellite services for comparable capacity. O3b is uniquely positioned to provide governments with affordable and reliable high throughput, low latency communications, where it is needed, when it is needed. For more information on O3b s customers, click on this link:
10 11 About O3b - Management O3b Products - O3b Investors -O3b Equipment Partners 10 11 About O3b O3b Products O3b Networks is a About global satellite services provider building a next-generation satellite network for telecommunications operators, Internet Service Providers, as well as enterprise and government customers in emerging markets. The O3b system will combine the global reach of satellite with the speed of a fiber optic network, providing billions of consumers and businesses in nearly 180 countries with low cost, high speed, low latency Internet and mobile connectivity. O3b s Satellites will orbit at 8,062km above the earth, an altitude known as Medium Earth Management Chief Officers Steve Collar Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Andrew Browne Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Orbit (MEO). From this low altitude latency is dramatically reduced, bringing it on par with a long haul fiber transmission. Operators can now consider satellite technology for applications that are latency sensitive. O3b s constellation of satellites utilizes multiple spot beams, which significantly increase each satellite s capacity and decrease the cost of bandwidth. The O3b business model focuses on three key deliverables: high capacity, fiberlike latency, and bandwidth that is significantly lower in cost. This value proposition has resonated well with the market, with a significant sales pipeline to date. John Finney Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) Stewart Sanders Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Products O3b has a strong line-up of products, which include O3bTrunk, O3bCell, O3bMaritime, and O3bEnergy. O3b also has a strong offering to the Government Sector and is gaining early traction in defence and civilian agencies worldwide. O3b s cellular backhaul product, O3bCell significantly improves the quality of mobile voice, enables true broadband speed, while reducing OPEX by 30% (compared to GEO). o3bnetworks.com/telcos/mobile-backhaul O3b s IP Trunking product, O3bTrunk brings new options for profitable and timely expansion for Telco s, ISPs and corporate network providers. o3bnetworks.com/telcos/ip-trunking O3b s Maritime offering, O3bMaritime delivers communications at sea, equal to the at home experience. o3bnetworks.com/enterprise/maritime O3b s offshore communications offering, O3bEnergy, O3bEnergy offers the performance of fiber with the flexibility of satellite delivered cost effectively and reliably. o3bnetworks.com/enterprise/energy O3b Investors O3b Networks enjoys world-class financial and operational support from SES, HSBC, Liberty Global, Development Bank of South Africa, Sofina, Satya Capital, Google, Northbridge Venture Partners and Allen & Company. Click here for more information: o3bnetworks.com/welcome-to-o3b/our-investors O3b Equipment Partners For more information and full bios of management team, see link below: o3bnetworks.com/welcome-to-o3b/management-team O3b is working with several established satellite equipment manufacturers to provide O3b-compatible systems prior to the in service date. o3bnetworks.com/welcome-to-o3b/partners