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O3b technical team, gateway equipment arrives at teleport site in Nemea, Greece.

Members of our ground system technical team have arrived in Nemea, Greece. They will spend the next six weeks here installing and testing O3b’s first global gateway.

Eight ISO containers packed with 79 crates of gear for three gateway antennas just arrived by truck, after a long journey by ship over the Atlantic. The equipment, which includes the gateway reflectors and pedestals as well as modems and hubs, was first shipped from ViaSat in Atlanta last month.

By early February, the mechanical assembly should be well on its way. The gateway antennas should really begin to take shape as the pedestals, hubs and reflectors go up and add a new feature to the landscape in Nemea. Hats off to our partners EMP and OTE, owners of the Nemea teleport where our Greece gateways will play an integral role in delivering the unique O3b service. EMP and OTE have done a tremendous job supporting our lofty endeavors and helping to enable our global vision of connecting the world’s underserved markets with affordable, high-speed broadband.

Next up after Nemea, Greece, we will install our second set of three gateway antennas at our teleport site in Sunset Beach, Hawaii. Once we get both Greece and Hawaii locations installed and tested, we will take lessons learned to the other gateways we will be installing throughout 2012.

Later this year, we will begin installing customer tier one antennas around the world. Customer gear will begin going in late this year, leading up to the launch of O3b service in early 2013. Tier one antennas will go up everywhere from the Cook Islands in the Pacific to a wide range of communities and countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America, where high-speed broadband is sure to be life-changing.

Our engineers involved in the initial gateway implementation here in Nemea, Greece will be doing some cross training. Everyone will get up to speed on various aspects of the gateway installation so that when we fan out around the world later this year we’ll be ready for anything.

It’s exciting. The thousands of hours in planning, design and development are paying off as we realize the fruits of our labor here in Greece.

Stand by for more updates from Nemea, Greece, where O3b is making history with its first gateway deployment. We’re also installing a time-lapse camera on site here, and we will share photos of this milestone project with you soon. In little more than a year from now, O3b will be launching something very special!

Jay Bloom is SVP of Ground Systems for O3b Networks.

Once installed, the O3b gateways being installed in Greece will look like this one in the test field at ViaSat in Atlanta.

One of three gateway pedestals is unloaded at the site of O3b’s first global gateway site in Nemea, Greece.

Eight rigs carrying containers full of O3b gateway gear arrive at the teleport site in Nemea, Greece.