Digicel Pacific buys more satellite capacity from O3b to enable LTE in Nauru

O3b Networks  announced that telco Digicel Pacific has signed an agreement to increase satellite capacity and bring LTE mobile connectivity to the remote Micronesian island of Nauru.

The Republic of Nauru is the smallest state in the South Pacific, with approximately 10,000 residents populating a 21 square-kilometer area. With its closest neighbor settled nearly 300 kilometers to the East, Nauru is incredibly remote and far beyond the reach of traditional fiber connectivity. Digicel Pacific has been providing connectivity over the O3b satellite-enabled network to the island since January 2015, and has since upgraded its bandwidth by 108.6% over a series of three upgrades.

With this boost in O3b’s connectivity service, Digicel Pacific has deployed 4G/LTE mobile services to Nauru. The high-throughput, low-latency connectivity provided by O3b’s constellation of MEO satellites will give Nauru residents the fast and reliable mobile data experience needed to join an increasingly digitized international community.

As Digicel Pacific has increased its capacity throughout the region, there have been significant increases in data usage, business growth, e-learning and e-health opportunities, says O3b. The prevalence of 4G/LTE connectivity on Nauru will accelerate that progress, supporting the development of Nauru by allowing island residents to participate in the global economy and connect with distant friends and loved ones with the same ease they would find in a major metropolitan city, said Imran Malik, VP of Asia and the Middle East at O3b Networks.

“Digicel and O3b have a long history of working together to develop and deploy cutting edge solutions for customers in the Asia Pacific region,” said Malik. “This improvement in mobile services for Nauru will be a catalyst for overall development on the island.”

“We have been able to upgrade with O3b three times because of the extraordinary adoption and increase in data usage we’ve seen throughout the region so far,” said Yvonne Steele, Digicel’s regional CEO.

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