Satellite communications service provider SpeedCast International Limited has entered into an agreement with O3b Networks under which the latter will provide capacity for Papua New Guinea (PNG) via its Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellite constellation. According to a press release confirming the development, the new service based on O3b capacity will ‘address the growing demand from SpeedCast’s customers in the region’. Under the deal, the O3b-based service will reportedly allow SpeedCast to deliver high throughput and low latency internet services to local customers, with the latter’s high bandwidth new IP Trunk from Port Moresby to the international Internet backbone enabling high throughput voice and data services. Meanwhile, it is understood that the new network will complement SpeedCast’s existing global network, which utilises Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) satellite capacity, with the company’s traditional network set to serve as a redundant back-up solution in the event of a primary network failure or other type of outage.
‘As a long-term key player in the PNG market, we understand our customers’ business needs and how service availability or speed limitations can impact their business activities. This new investment shows our commitment to the PNG market’, said Pierre-Jean Beylier, CEO of SpeedCast, of the plans, adding: ‘We are pleased to extend our value proposition in partnership with O3b, to enable our wholesale customers to deliver the highest combination of bandwidth, speed, low latency and availability at a more accessible price for an even wider range of end-users.’
The new partnership with O3b comes in the wake of SpeedCast’s acquisition of PNG-based telecommunications provider Oceanic Broadband Services and its new teleport facilities in Port Moresby last year.