[Satellite News 11-15-11] SinceformerCEO Greg Wyler founded O3b Networks in 2007, the operator has stuck to a future strategy based on its original mission statement, which is outlined in the initials that make up the company’s brand name. O3b stands for “other three billion,” referring to the population of emerging markets in Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and others that the company believes it can help serve with high-speed Internet connectivity.

   The company first made headlines in September 2008 when it ordered 16 low-earth orbit satellites for the constellation from Thales Alenia Space as the first stage in a $750 million project to connect mobile masts in a swath of countries within 45 degrees of the equator to fast broadband networks. The complete system will include 2,133 transponder equivalents delivering low-latency Internet backhaul at speeds up to 10 gigabits per second. Even more impressive was the financial and operational support structure O3b amassed, which included global giants Google Inc., Liberty Global Inc., HSBC Principal Investments and eventually FSS operator SES. The company missed its original service activation target of late 2010, but only because its plans have expanded considerably since the original timeline was established.

   Last month, O3b’s current CEO Steve Collar told Satellite News that from a sales perspective, having the engineering work completed on its initial fleet means the company should be well on its way to filling the first eight satellites of its planned constellation. “I would also like to see us with more satellites under construction,” Collar said at the time. “O3b was never intended to be an eight-satellite network. We have a fantastically scalable system. The more satellites we add to our constellation, the more capacity we can provide to our customers worldwide, the more efficient our satellite networks become and the more value we can provide to the market. It is our ambition by the time we launch our first set of satellites, that we will have more satellites under construction ready to fulfil our customers’ needs.”

   Just one month later, O3b’s investors acknowledged that they are on the same page. On Nov. 10, the broadband operator and service provider announced it raised $137 million for the construction of four additional satellites that will aim to double capacity and boost redundancy over its targeted emerging markets. The four new satellites will aim to deliver wholesale high-speed broadband internet services from optical fiber backbones in the remote regions such as Indonesia, South America’s Amazon and Africa from the submarine cables connecting the continent’s coasts.

   The additional spacecraft will launch in 2014, joining O3b Networks’ initial fleet of eight MEO satellites scheduled to orbit in early 2013. Out of those initial eight satellites, the company said its first four would reach orbit on a Russian-built Arianespace Soyuz, with the other four satellites due to follow on a second launch a few weeks later. The company said the expansion of the fleet would increase the company’s throughput by more than 90 percent through a combination of the additional beams deployed and the enhanced link efficiency of a larger constellation of satellites.

   New equity funds were raised from some of O3b’s original investors, including Google, who were joined by Luxembourg-based investment company Luxempart. The financing also included the expansion of French export credit agency Coface-backed senior debt facility of an additional $85 million provided by HSBC, ING, CA-CIB and Dexia. O3b said it expects global IP traffic to quadruple over the next five years, growing at more than 30 percent per year thanks to large contributions from emerging markets. The company has already sold a little over a third of its capacity on a global basis with the contracted backlog now standing at over $600 million.

   “Raising additional financing to support future growth at a time of market uncertainty is an incredibly important milestone for O3b Networks and reflects the confidence that our investors and lenders have in our vision and unique value proposition," said O3b Executive Vice President of Corporate Development Bill Lawrence.

Now a year and a half before O3b’s service is set to launch, the operator said it has already sold and committed a third of its capacity and in some regions, has completely sold out of available bandwidth.