Nelco and Telesat have announced that they have together successfully completed their first in-orbit demonstration of high-speed broadband connectivity in India with Telesat’s Phase 1 Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite. This is yet another big milestone for bringing next-generation satellite communication (satcom) technologies to the country.
The testing campaign was conducted from April 25 to April 29, 2022. It happened at the Nelco’s Mahape teleport and leveraged an 85-cm Intellian parabolic antenna to connect to Telesat’s Phase 1 LEO satellite.
Multiple Representatives from Enterprises and Government Departments Participated in the Tests
It is worth noting that there were over 50 representatives from enterprises, government departments, and telecom companies who participated in the live testing conducted by Telesat and Nelco. These representatives witnessed fibre-like, high-speed performance with 35ms roundtrip latency.
During the testing, the companies together demonstrated a wide range of cloud-based applications, which included real-time video conferencing over Microsoft Teams along with YouTube and Live TV video streaming.
The satcom industry has been growing at a rapid pace globally owing to the exponential growth in IP traffic demands and advancements in space-based technologies. With LEO satellites, connectivity from satellites will be revolutionised and bring transformational capabilities to enterprise, maritime, telecom, and aviation customers across all regions and terrains in the country.
Nelco, along with Telesat is planning to serve existing as well as new and upcoming market segments by enabling broadband connectivity for low latency applications with Telesat Lightspeed services.
For the unaware, the Telesat Lightspeed is an advanced, enterprise-class satellite network that leverages Telesat’s innovative architecture and global Ka-band priority spectrum rights.
Satcom services via LEO satellites will enable internet connectivity in the remotest regions of the country. Other companies such as OneWeb and Starlink are also gearing up for the India launch of services. Jeff Bezos owned Amazon is also working to bring its Project Kuiper, which is also going to leverage LEO satellites for providing internet connectivity.
