An Arianespace Soyuz rocket lifting off with 4 O3b satellites. (Credit: Arianespace)

Earlier this week, O3b Networks announced that its constellation of eight satellites, four of which were launched into orbit last month, are now fully operational.

O3b (the name comes from the other 3 billion people without internet access) is able to offer high speed satellite internet to places where its difficult to build a fiberoptic infrastructure. And while satellite internet isnt new, O3bs uniqueness is that it can provide that internet with low latency the time it takes the signal to travel.

Most satellite internet and data services are from satellites in geosynchronous orbit a little over 22,000 miles above the Earths surface. That distance increases the time it takes for data signals to travel. O3bs satellites, on the other hand, are only about 5000 miles above the Earths surface. That decreases the latency to a point thats competitive with fiberoptic services.

As a result of its data services, the company reports that many of its telecommunications company customers are now able to provide 3G data services to their customers when before they were only able to offer voice services. And its data trunking service is able to provide 600Mbps with a latency of less than 150 milliseconds.

The exciting part of our challenge now is keeping up with demand, O3b CEO Steve Collar said in a statement. We have 28 signed customers who are eagerly anticipating service activation and all have heard the reaction from customers already in service.

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O3b Is Now Bringing Its High Speed Satellite Internet To Emerging Markets