Guyana ISP first in Latin America to go live on O3b satellite broadband network

Global satellite services provider O3b Networks has signed a multi-year agreement with Guyana's ISP E-Networks to use O3b's unique Fiber in the Sky satellite network, according to a statement.

E-Networks would become the first Latin American client to go live on the O3b network since it began commercial operations earlier this year.

E-Network will work with O3b as a certified partner in Guyana.

Vishok Persaud, managing director of E-Networks, said the agreement would enhance E-Networks' network performance and enable the company to offer international services to corporate clients on fiber or O3b satellite links.

"This gives us the most resilient network in Guyana. Access to the O3b network gives us the ability to open up new services countrywide where it would otherwise be difficult to have access to fiber."

O3b, which stands for the "other 3 billion" people on earth who do not have access to broadband, believes it can provide cheap voice and data connectivity to operators by using the novel approach of satellites in the medium-earth orbit (MEO) at 8,000km, a quarter of the distance from the earth than that of geostationary satellites.

In July, O3b Networks launched four new satellites from French Guiana, bringing its total to eight.

While O3b has had contracts in place with Ozônio Telecomunicações for Brazil's Amazon region, Skynet Colombia for the Colombian Amazon, Royal Caribbean Cruises and Quark Guyana, service has not been available in Latin America due to the limited capacity with the four initial satellites.

Omar Trujillo, O3b's VP for Latin America and Africa, told BNamericas the company is looking at selling the broadband services to niche markets, including the maritime, oil and mining sectors and cellular backhaul.