The system uses high-throughput and low-latency satellites in a medium Earth orbit (MEO), along with ground infrastructure and intelligent software, to provide multiple terabits of global broadband connectivity for applications including cellular backhaul and international IP trunking, cruise line connectivity, disaster recovery, and military communications.

[2][3][4][5][6] The O3b mPOWER satellites use fully shapable and steerable spot beams that can be shifted and scaled in real time to suit individual users.

[11][7] The electronically steered phased array antennas can provide up to 5000 spot beams per satellite each shaped and pointed as required to specifically distribute power and bandwidth to individual user's terminals and, using the full Ka-band spectrum, enable uncontended speeds from 50 Mbit/s up to 10 Gbit/s.

[3][13][14] When the first four satellites were in orbit, and the fifth and sixth about to be launched, it was discovered that they were afflicted with electrical issues that reduce their operational life and broadband capacity.

To achieve the performance originally expected from the whole system, modifications were made to satellites 7–11, under construction by Boeing, and two additional craft added to the constellation.

[19] In September 2019, SES announced it had partnered with satellite payload and network management systems developer, Kythera Space Solutions to develop the ARC (Adaptive Resource Control) software to enable the dynamic control and optimisation of power, throughput, beams and frequency allocation on O3b mPOWER and other future high-throughput satellites (such as the geostationary SES-17, launched in October 2021; in position and fully operational in June 2022).

[21] In February 2020, Princess Cruises announced a partnership with SES for early access to the O3b mPOWER system, using a hybrid network of both MEO and geostationary satellites to provide connectivity to its fleet at sea.

[25][26] In November 2020, SES announced that Gilat and ST Engineering iDirect are developing the modem platforms and ground infrastructure for the O3b mPOWER communications system.

[28] In February 2021, SES announced that four of the five top cruise companies have contracted connectivity services using the O3b mPOWER system ahead of the satellites' launch and with the majority extending beyond 2025.

[38] In October 2022, SES announced a capacity deal with telco, Claro Brasil (through its Embratel division) to use the O3b mPOWER network to extend its mobile backhaul service serving more than 260,000 inhabitants of the eight cities in the isolated Amazon region.

[41] On 16 December 2022, the first two O3b mPOWER satellites were successfully launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 5:48 pm local time .

[1] The two satellites had been 'mated' and fueled with the Xenon gas for their plasma thrusters at Boeing's factory in El Segundo, California before delivery to Cape Canaveral, considerably reducing the time required at the spaceport to ready them for launch.

[55] On 12 November 2023, the fifth and sixth O3b mPOWER satellites were successfully launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida by SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

[56] In November 2023, the US Department of Defense awarded SES a blanket purchase agreement worth up to US$270 million over five years for global HTS managed services on the O3b system.

[60] On 17 December 2024, the seventh and eighth O3b mPOWER satellites were successfully launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida by SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.