Satellite broadband for billions
Tuesday 30th November 2010, 3:00PM GMT.
The project will give high-speed internet access to countries including Africa, says John Dick the chairman of O3b Networks
A JERSEY company intends to launch satellites into space that will allow three billion people in the Third World to access high-speed internet connections.
O3b Networks is backed by online giant Google and HSBC and chaired by the Seigneur of St John, John Dick.
The business has announced that it has raised US$1.2 billion to help fund the project.
Mr Dick said that eight satellites were being built in France and it is planned that they are launched from French Guyana in 2013, with more to follow.
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Will they launch them from here, maybe Jersey could offer space tourism!?
Fort Regent could be converted into Cape Canaveral, plus its quite high up and would save on rocket fuel!
Its a win win situation.
Probably.
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How many people in the third world have access to a pc? is it 3 billion people? Isn’t food, clean water and safe working conditions a priority any more.
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sounds great. hopefully jersey will be supplied broadband as well given the poor service from JT. surely the FSC agreed this? No?
well then im sure jersey will benefit from the tax take of the companies profits. that is of course if jersey taxed such copmanies! of course under 0/10 jersey will earn no revenue from this.
still im sure john dick will pay 20% on his director fee. chances?
today the uk announced a 10% rate for profits of products developed in the uk. jersey will face such competition from other euro nations as well.
yet jersey refuses to tax anything other than the working people of jersey.
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So why cant I get more than 2meg in St Ouen? Is St Ouen 3rd world?
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Now this is the sort of thing our Economic Development Minister should be backing.
Finance is a mature industry, which will decline over time. We need new industries to bring new jobs to Jersey.
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Steve (4) Is St Ouen 3rd world?
No you are in the Wild West.
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Just opens up the door for more scammers and con artists to hijack your personal and credit card details.
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always good to read the positive messages on this board.
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This is a great idea but a re-launch of a project attempted during the 1990’s called Teledesic. Teledesic received most of its funding from Bill Gates the founder of Microsoft and Craig McCaw who founded McCaw Cellular.
What it shows is that true new global businesses can be established in Jersey, but it is a real shame that similar ambitions to create and support the new Regulated Financial Services Organisations that are emerging and able to function within Europe are sadly unable today to operate from Jersey.
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You can get 8Mb by the parish hall you, but if you are down L’Etacq you get what you deserve!
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Well, good luck to team behind it all.
Myself…well, i’m waiting for the fantastic 4g network from clear mobitel….
50Meg dl speeds woop woop
I can remember when we could only get 1/2 a meg , and asked a supplier here in jersey if i could get 8 meg, he replied by saying we don’t need such high speeds,i walked out of the shop on snow hill, scratching the manager of my christmas list.
Africa my not have snow xmas 2011, but they will have access to a live webcam where they do.
Ho ho ho….hum
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Well thats good, with increased Internet access they will be able to carry out even more 419 Scams…..
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to steve @ 4
2 meg…..lucky you. Here in tropical St. Lawrence we recieve Jersey telecom’s “treacle” service, 1 meg max.Something to do with living down a lane.
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It will certainly move some money around, long before many of these ‘other 3 billion’ actually get to see their internet connection.
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Broadband??? Who will be able to afford it??
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Will this cover include Jersey I wonder. If it does we might get an improved service.
Sounds like the ching, ching, of money to me.
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7 Class – Just opens up the door for more scammers and con artists to hijack your personal and credit card details
Only if you are an idiot with no security suite.
Or if you are dumb enough to provide a body claiming to be your bank with your passwords when they don’t even know your name – been burnt have we?
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I for one would like to thank Sir John and his minions for bringing high speed internet to africa – God knows they dont have the calorific update to hang around waiting for “news” to download…
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Could they put the chief minister and Ozouf up there too?
Pretty please???
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So that’s who lives at St John’s Manor nowadays. Some memorable parties there in the 70′s.
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I would not complain about 1Mb, there are bits of St Brelade that are still on 512K and a black spot in St Mary that gets 128K on a good day with a following wind.
But one day a flock of mutant porkers will fly in the Jersey International Air Display and we will all have 100Mb.
I would not hold my breath on this project, there have been several attempts to build this network and they have all foundered on the huge upfront capital costs, a lot more than $1.2bn, that is the deposit!
The network is not much use until you have got a lot of satellites up at millions a pop.
My bet is that conventional wired modems, ADSL, 3G will have the best parts of the market before they get off the ground so to speak!
Suppose I was running an ISP in Nigeria, I would start with wired connections in Lagos where customers are thick on the ground, so I would get early revenues to fund running costs. I would then expand out to regional towns and use wireless 3G to connect the more thinly populated countryside.
A much nicer business model with a fraction of the capital cost up front and early revenue streams!
Contrary to Real Truthseeker’s opinion I can do capitalism
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I hope they won’t charge users the same prices that they do here in rip-off Jersey! I can’t see people in the Third World forking out £17.50 or more per month for this service!
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“Satellite broadband for billions”
Oh I misunderstood for a moment, I thought this was referring to the cost of subscribing to JT’s uprated broadband service.
They could launch the satellites from Ozouf’s garden, it’s closer to outer space cos he’s out there man.
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A woman is Spain is Claiming she owns the SUN!
Well, can I claim I own the Airspace over head, therefore they need to pay me!!!
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24mb technology launches at JT today and its a mere £25 more … not billions.
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21. Pip Clement
Don’t know where this cat gets his info from. According to the press, $1.2b funds the company’s first 8 satellites, which will generate sufficient cash flow to cover the next 8. It’s not a deposit, it’s a fully funded capital model for the next 5 years.
And the rest of your post misunderstands the technology. The system provides wholesale capacity to those local ISPs and telephone networks who lack backhaul capacity to link up to the big servers in Europe and the States that together form “the internet”. These local ISP networks are not a source of competition, they’re essential to the project.
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Love reading these posts, some very funny comments….Keep them up!
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Great to see how people comment without researching what a business is first.. it has been non profit for ages and to allow disadvantaged people the opportunity to educate themselves.. that means disadvantaged not whining unappreciative beans like you lot..
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Dear Vicki.
Whilst I agree with the essence of your post, please can you tell us how you have arrived at the conclusion that every poster on this thread who has moaned is a bean.
I happen to know one of the contributors personally, and she happens to be scottish!
I applaud this project and am excited at the thought of the millions of people who will benefit from this. Guess what. I’m a bean!
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Jamie
Posted November 30, 2010 at 4:46 pm
“Well thats good, with increased Internet access they will be able to carry out even more 419 Scams…..”
Lol. And don’t forget their LOTTO advanced fee payouts! Will we be getting Western Union to send them cash in next?
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As Nick Ogden says some of us slightly older cats will remember the ill fated Teledesic together with the Iridium and Globalstar ventures.
The history of IT is littered with projects that were just too big, too blue sky or just poorly thought out.
Maybe O3b Networks is bringing something to the party that will let it succeed where Teledesic failed completely, we will see.
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Article posted on 30th April, 2010 – 3.00pm
Internet speeds to beat the world
By Harry McRandle
JERSEY will have internet connections that are among the fastest in the world within a year.
Jersey Telecom is to start trials that will allow Islanders to access the internet at speeds of up to 500 times faster than those available today.
During a debate held last night on the future of the telecoms industry, the new chief executive of the States-owned utility business, Graeme Millar, announced that JT would launch ‘Gigabit Jersey’.
The superfast speeds will make connections to the internet virtually instantaneous and will, for example, allow superfast downloads of high-definition movies.
………………………………….
Only a maximum of 4 months to go Jersey Telecom (within a year) – looking forward to you living up to your promise!!!!
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A little known fact is that Newtel have been offering 10Mb broadband for £25 and 2 Mb for £15. It doesn’t require a JT landline so saves £12.77 per month.
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33.#
Old Guy – Last time i went into see Newtel , they told me i needed a landline ( i still do not have one )
Can you give me anymore info on who to see to get this connection please ?
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Young man, suggest you go and ask again. problem is it is limited at present to certain areas. Where abouts are you living?
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Just seen the JT promotion on their site for their new 16mb and 20mb lines, they are absolutely disgraceful.
The upload speed is ATROCIOUS, it’s barely even an upgrade from the 8mb line, and then there’s the pricing. Virgin Media (yes I’m well aware their lines are pretty awful) offer a 50mb line with 5mb upload speeds for £25.99 a month, how on earth can Jersey Telecom justify offering a 20mb line with only 768kbit upload for FIFTY, yes £50 a month?!
Can’t wait to see what they plan on charging for these gigabit lines, £2500 a month by the current pricing!
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35 #
down by town mills , maybe i might be in with a chance
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I can’t see many in Africa being interested in this, as survival is their main aim, not the latest Nokia with full internet access.
Jeff the trouble is JT are having their profits erroded by competition and because of this will it much harder to keep up. They provide the infrasture on which the others depend. I am led to believe they are forced to sell wholesale to their competitors, who can then undercut JT’s prices due to the way the JCRA dictates pricing structures.
BT had the same issues in the UK when the telco market was liberalised in the 1980′s.
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They don’t lose much time adopting the technology when they get to London, Adrian.
They put my meagre equipment to shame. I mean with their gadgets, of course.
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