Start-Up Seeks to Link 3 Billion to Net

An entrepreneur's quest to use satellites to bring high-speed Internet service to poor, remote countries is nearing liftoff with a major investment from some big names, including Google. On Tuesday, O3b Networks Ltd., founded and run by 38-year-old telecommunications entrepreneur Greg Wyler, is expected to announce plans to launch as many as 16 satellites that could provide service to Africa, the Middle East and parts of Latin America by the end of 2010. While most of the world's estimated 1.5 billion Internet users reside in developed countries, telecom companies are looking at fast growth in areas like Africa and the Middle East, where the number is jumping by 50% or more each year. "This is about opening the Internet up to the other three billion people" on the planet, says Wyler. The idea of delivering Internet via satellite isn't new, but early projects were bedeviled by high costs and other problems. In the U.S., some companies offer services starting at about $60 a month. But customers have to be willing to spend a few hundred dollars on a satellite dish, and rainstorms can cut off connections. Despite such problems "there's a lot of demand for broadband in remote areas, and [satellites are] the best and fastest way to get there," says Claude Rousseau, an analyst with Northern Sky Research.