Originally planned for a September 30 liftoff on an Arianespace Soyuz flight from the Spaceport in French Guiana, the new date – anticipated for the first quarter of 2014 – will be confirmed in due course.

It will be the second Soyuz mission for O3b Networks, following Arianespace’s June 25 orbiting of the initial four satellites.  This success provided the first step in O3b Networks’ creation of a space-based constellation to deliver telecommunications and Internet services over Asia, Africa, South America, Australia and the Middle East – combining the global reach of satellite coverage with the speed of a fiber-optic network.