Telesat announced it is teaming with ThinKom Solutions to integrate its Ka2517 antennas for global inflight broadband into the Telesat Lightspeed™ LEO satellite broadband network.
The effort, according to the company, will include the integration of the Ka2517 as a complete aeronautical user terminal solution, followed by formal type approval of the Ka2517 on the Telesat Lightspeed network.
The Ka2517 antennas will be included into the fully integrated 298 satellite and ground network, which is expected to begin services in 2023.
Based on the performance and efficiency of the antennas and Telesat’s LEO satellite network, downlink speeds are expected to reach up to 830 Mbps and uplink speeds up to 200 Mbps to a single aircraft.
Ka2517 antennas have already been tested on Telesat’s Phase 1 LEO satellite, providing high spectral efficiencies, and ultra-low latency of 20-40 msec. Additional testing will be conducted to validate both intra- and inter-satellite handovers on the Ka2517 terminal when the Telesat Lightspeed satellites are in orbit.
In May, Telesat completed verification of Global Eagle’s Airconnect Ka IFC terminal, which is also to be used with the Telesat Lightspeed LEO network.
Telesat and Global Eagle engineers carried out network simulations to determine the efficiency of the antenna at flight speed and to mimic the real-world experience of use cases requiring low latency and high-speed throughput from the aircraft, including online gaming, cloud-hosted applications, and content-rich social media.
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