Saint John, Jersey : O3b Networks announced today that the company has signed a multi-year, multi-million dollar deal with Netcom Africa, a leading provider of satellite and wireless broadband solutions to provide low latency, high capacity broadband connectivity to ships and offshore platforms in Nigeria utilizing O3b’s Medium Earth Orbit technology. Nigeria is one of the world’s largest oil producing nations with most multinational oil and gas corporations operating in the region. Despite the availability of multiple submarine cable networks on the coast of the country, service providers have struggled to meet the unique needs of the oil and gas sector.

“This is an important deal for us because for the first time we are providing capacity to Netcom that will serve the oil and gas market. The bandwidth will be delivered over the city of Lagos, the Niger Delta region as well as the offshore oil rigs that comprise approximately 50 platforms. We are excited to see the benefits O3b can bring to this market compared with what they are using today,” said John Finney, EVP Sales and Marketing, O3b Networks.

“The high-capacity, low latency connectivity that O3b’s unique constellation of MEO (Medium Earth Orbit) satellites will provide, will allow us to offer a quality of service to our oil and gas customers operating in the Niger Delta region that was never possible before. Our services will be available in every part of the region, including onshore, and deep offshore using cutting edge motion stabilized antenna systems. Offshore workers will be able to talk with friends and family at home with no delay and large volumes of data will be transferred onshore for analysis quickly and seamlessly,” said Yen Choi, Group EVP and CTO, Netcom Africa.