O3b Networks lights up Gulfsat Madagascar as deployment in Africa accelerates
Gulfsat becomes first African company to offer a fully redundant hybrid fiber-O3b network
St. Helier, Jersey, Channel Islands – O3b today announced the activation of Gulfsat Madagascar on its innovative, state-of-the-art satellite network. Gulfsat, which provide high performance broadband and telephony services in Madagascar, now operate a fully resilient network, incorporating both fiber and fiber equivalent satellite to drive new levels of performance and reliability. The significant increase in affordable bandwidth will enable Gulfsat to expand their offering in the market, adding new enterprise services at speeds of up to 50 Mbps using the O3bTrunk solution while the lower latency will benefit Gulfsat’s existing and new oil and gas customers.
Damien de Lamberterie, General Manager, Gulfsat Madagascar, said:
“We are delighted to now be up on the O3b network. Our corporate customers demand high levels of performance and resilience and our unique hybrid network will differentiate our service, particularly for our corporate and enterprise customers. Gulfsat can now offer a new level of broadband solutions with the speed of fiber and the reach and reliability of satellite. The O3b solution and our fibre network are closely matched in terms of price and performance and as a result the two technologies work seamlessly together.”
Omar Tujillo, O3b Regional Vice President of Africa and LATAM said:
“The O3b network delivers reliable throughput of up to 1.6 Gbps at less than 150 msec round trip latency to under-served markets across the globe. Gulfsat is an early adopter of our innovative service and one of the first to go live in Africa, bringing new high performance high availability connectivity to businesses and consumers in Madagascar.
“The fact that O3b’s service was selected by Gulfsat in a market where more than one submarine fiber is available was very telling to us. We are starting to see that African customers that focus on providing a high quality service select our platform ahead of fiber or traditional satellite because they look for a combination of high throughput, low latency, high reliability and a competitive price, which only we can offer.”
O3b Networks is already providing services to Africa, Asia Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East, following the launch of its first 8 satellites. The constellation was designed to connect the “other 3 billion” people who do not currently have broadband access to the internet. O3b will be adding to its network with the launch of 4 additional satellites in December 2014.
About O3b Networks Limited
O3b Networks Limited is a global satellite service provider operating a next-generation satellite network for telecommunications operators, Internet service providers, enterprise and government customers in emerging markets. The O3b system combines the global reach of satellite with the speed of a fibre-optic network providing billions of consumers and businesses in nearly 180 countries with low-cost, high-speed, low latency Internet and mobile connectivity. O3b Networks’ investors include SES, Google, Liberty Global, HSBC Principal Investments, Northbridge Venture Partners, Allen & Company, Development Bank of Southern Africa, Sofina, Satya Capital and Luxempart. O3b Networks is headquartered in St. Helier, Jersey, Channel Islands.
About Gulfsat
Created in 1997, Gulfsat is a pioneer in Internet access and data transmission systems and networks in Madagascar and the Indian Ocean region. Gulfsat is considered a leader in wireless network deployment and operations with state-of-the-art technologies for a broad range of connectivity offerings, including VSAT telephony, 3G mobile services, Wimax and LTE.
