Late on June 24th a Soyuz rocket should lift off from the French Guiana launch site containing the first four O3b Network’s satellites. Designed to bring low-cost  broadband and 3G-type services to the “other 3 billion” unserved or under-served potential users on the planet.

Google, SES and Liberty are amongst the Jersey-based project’s main investors. The company has already declared contracts worth more than $750 million.

Four additional satellites are then due for launch in September and the 8-satellite constellation is slated to begin transmissions in November. Ground stations have been built to send and receive messages to the fleet.

Launch take-off is scheduled for 15.53 (French Guiana time), or 18.53 UTC/20.53 European time.

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Categories: Articles, DTH/Satellite