SES mPowers O3b high beamcount high throughput MEO satellite service

[DCI forum]

SES mPowers O3b high beamcount, high throughput, MEO satellite service, with an order for an initial seven new super-powered medium earth orbit (MEO) satellites from Boeing Satellite Systems.

The constellation will have 30,000 fully-shapeable and steerable beams that can be shifted and switched in real time to align with customers' quickly changing growth opportunities. O3b mPOWER is capable of delivering multiple terabits of throughput globally and is scheduled for launch starting in 2021.



Launch of the new mPower service is not until 2021. However O3b will expand its current constellation and service by adding eight satellites to its current twelve in orbit. "The original O3b system was designed for 200 beams, so basically 200 customers", explains Karim Michael Sabbagh, O3b parent company SES' President and CEO at a Paris press conference this morning, during the Paris Satellite Week. He added "We took this to our industry partners and Boeing responded, we can offer 4000 beams per satellite".

"When I realised we could fullfill the communications needs of a country, some countries, not all countries, without meaningfull additional terrestrial infrastructure, i knew we had something", O3b CEO Steve Collar, who since the integration of O3b in SES is Chief Executive Officer, SES Networks, told the same conference. He names Proctor & Gamble or Carnival Cruiselines as examples of commercial clients that could bring their entire communications onto the mPower platform, for an integrated global private network. That offers a large number of sites with gigabit connectivity.

"With the launch of O3b mPOWER, SES is opening a new era of connectivity, fundamentally transforming the role and capabilities of satellite. O3b mPOWER is a unique system with exponentially more power, performance and flexibility which sets the technology at the highest level, offering a visionary roadmap for next generation technology. We are taking a long-term strategic commitment to further boost our capabilities, going beyond boundaries and redefining the frontiers of what satellite connectivity can accomplish. O3b mPOWER will be instrumental in empowering customers to massively scale up their businesses and capture new growth", Karim Michael Sabbagh, expands upon the company's strategy. SES last year changed its strategy from selling raw bandwidth at a super high margin to accepting lower margins, offering integrated services across two verticals to avoid commodification. O3b is the lead on the data and government netwrks services division, and mediamanagement company MX1 offers global mediadistribution.

O3b mPOWER says it will also 'create a unique ecosystem of value-add service and technology partners from all over the world. Together with SES, O3b mPOWER partners will invest in significant ground infrastructure innovations that converge storage, computing and routing resources with software intelligence and application-specific antennas and will introduce a new concept for the network endpoint: a small, fast and easy-to-install O3b mPOWER Customer Edge Terminal'.

A small, mobile Customer Edge Terminal is essential for success of the new type of service, as the current O3b service requires large 3-6 meter dishes that track the satellites orbit.

In news it tends to be cost, quickness and ease of us not data throughput and resulting picture quality that wins the day. However with its near global coverage when the 7 new Boeing satellites are deployed 80% of the earth's surface is covered it does offer the uniformity, and global usability international media companies look for, so let's see if we will see the new technology demonstrated at IBC 2020/1.

[DCI forum]

With the fifth launch of four satellites SES completes the initial O3b Medium Earth Orbit system of 20 high throughput satellites. From 2012 onward the new and additional O3b mPOWER is scheduled to come online, dramatically expanding the number of locations that may be served with low-latency data services.



The selection of Arianespace and its smaller Soyuz rocket doesn't come as a surprise as all the other satellites were lifted into space from Arianespace's Kourou French Guyana spaceport.

The 20 O3b satellites operate in MEO, nearly 8,000 kilometres above the Earth. They are built by Thales Alenia Space, have a mass of approximately 700 kilogram at lift-off and provide each a capacity of more than 10 Gigabits per second.

The initial system of 20 satellites forms the first strong building block of a high-power, high-throughput fleet. A new super-powered terabit constellation and connectivity network system, O3b mPOWER, will add another seven next generation Boeing satellites and comprehensive global ground system starting in 2021 and bringing the total number of O3b satellites by then to 27. SES's MEO system will be fully integrated into its large fleet in Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO).

"We are pleased that we can rely on proven partners to develop our O3b fleet," said Steve Collar, CEO of SES Networks. "As the only MEO constellation in the world, the O3b fleet is a cornerstone of our strategy to serve fast-growing data markets with high-performance, fibre-equivalent connectivity virtually anywhere. Our commitment to Arianespace also underscores that SES continues to play a major role for the European space industry".

SES Networks, that operates the O3b fleet, is a provider of global managed data services, and a new SES business unit comprised of the former O3b Networks and SES data business. With the network solutions powered by the O3b fleet of MEO satellites, together with the reach of more than 50 GEO satellites, SES Networks says it enables high-performance communications for fixed data, mobility and government customers virtually anywhere.

[DCI forum]

As it is Paris Satellite Week we are seeing a large amount of satellite industry announcements, SES is not only launching High-throughput satellites to Medium Earth Orbit, as part of the O3b constellation, but also announced SES-17. A high thoughput Geostationary Orbit satellite it will use to offer high-speed inflight connectivity and high-powered data services over the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean.

SES-17 is scheduled for a launch on an Ariane 5 in 2021, from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana.



Weighing more than six metric tons at launch, SES-17 will be among the 10 largest telecom satellites launched by Arianespace since the company's founding. SES-17 is the third all-electric satellite for which SES has chosen an Arianespace launch. The satellite built by Thales Alenia Space is fitted with an electric propulsion system for orbital positioning and station-keeping; its payload comprises 200 Ka-band spotbeams; the orbital position of the spacecraft has not yet been disclosed.

"SES and Arianespace have developed an exceptional partnership over the past 30 years", said Martin Halliwell, Chief Technology Officer of SES. "With this launch, we build on that relationship and underline our commitment to the European space industry. Together with today's agreement with Arianespace to launch another four spacecraft of our O3b constellation on Soyuz in 2019, we are satisfied to conclude two important contracts with Arianespace giving us the necessary and reliable access to space that we need to further develop and drive our business".

Stéphane Israël, CEO of Arianespace, noted: "This latest contract reflects the excellent relations built between Arianespace and SES over the past three decades. Our order book speaks for itself, with now 10 satellites to be launched for SES by 2021. We are honored to have been selected by SES for the launch of the new-generation SES-17 - an impressively sized, all-electric satellite - which shows Arianespace's ability to adapt to customers' evolving requirements. SES' continued trust in Arianespace is a clear demonstration that our Ariane 5 heavy-lift launcher is keeping pace with these changing technologies, prior to the advent of our new-generation Ariane 6 launch vehicle - for which discussions are underway to serve future SES missions".