We’ve been told that the space Internet will arrive soon, courtesy of Elon Musk’s SpaceX or a rival effort from Greg Wyler’s OneWeb. Both companies intend to surround Earth with thousands of satellites positioned in relatively low orbits. Those satellites will beam the Internet down from the heavens and give all people — not just those in well-connected cities — high-speed access to the Web. OneWeb believes this space Internet should arrive by 2019; Musk’s SpaceX would hypothetically deliver a similar service around the same time.
Here’s the thing: It turns out that space Internet already exists. You don’t hear about it that often because the company delivering it, O3b Networks, isn’t run by a techno-celebrity named Musk or a radical like Wyler. But sure enough, O3b has operated a network of 12 Internet-beaming satellites for the past few months.
The O3b name stands for “the other 3 billion,” an indication of the company’s aspiration to provide high-speed Internet access for the chunk of the world’s population that can’t be reached effectively by fiber optic cables. O3b’s satellites sit in an orbit about 5,000 miles from Earth — much closer to customers than previous satellites that attempted to deliver similar services — allowing data transfers at near-fiber optic Internet speeds.
To date, islands and countries located near the equator have shown the most interest in O3b’s services. O3b also has a deal in place with Royal Caribbean Cruises to provide high-speed Internet on its ships and has just revealed an agreement with Miami-based Emerging Markets Communications that will bring high-speed Internet to offshore and remote oil drilling rigs. All told, O3b has signed up 21 customers and has 20 more deals in the works, says O3b Chief Executive Officer Steve Collar. Based on the demand, Collar has gone back to O3b’s board to seek approval to add eight satellites to the company’s network.
SpaceX and OneWeb would be able to cover the areas that O3b misses, although Tim Farrar, a satellite communications consultant, says they will probably struggle to cover equatorial regions. They’re also looking to sell to consumers instead of focusing directly on large communications providers, as O3b is doing.
