Spacecom tests Telesat’s Lightspeed demo craft
December 16, 2022
By Chris Forrester
Israel-based satellite operator Spacecom has wrapped its tests on behalf of Telesat of Canada on its Phase 1 low Earth orbiting (LEO) satellite.
Telesat has yet to announce who will build its fleet of almost 200 LEO satellites, although most observers expect an order to be placed this winter.
The tests, conducted from Spacecom’s Teleport and labs facility located near Jerusalem, reached an average latency of below 30 milliseconds and data rates over 50 Mbps. In one case study, the companies tested backhauling for WiFi hotspots – such as in enterprise offices and remote communities using Spacecom’s DCP (Digital Community Platform).
The proof of concept tests for the satellite’s efficiencies showed speeds and complete system reliability consistent and similar to top-of-class land-based internet connectivity, says a joint statement. “The testing of various applications including video uploads, video conferencing, Cloud applications, and VPN used over 10 devices connected simultaneously to the hotspot. The download speeds were measured at over 10 Mbps and upload speeds of over 20 Mbps per device.”
“Spacecom is working towards offering multi-orbit services and these steps with our partners at Telesat prove that we are on the right path to offer Telesat Lightspeed services in the future,” stated Ofer Asif, SVP of Strategy and BizDev at Spacecom. “Our technical and engineering capabilities, alongside creative and dedicated problem solving, are exactly what is needed to take advantage of our position in the satellite industry and deliver unique value to our customers.”
Telesat’s CCO Glenn Katz commented, “We are excited to partner with the Spacecom team to expand their services portfolio with enterprise-class, high throughput, low-latency connectivity. With our programmable virtual network operator (pVNO) model and committed information rates backed by SLAs, Telesat Lightspeed provides a flexible and compelling value proposition for Spacecom’s next-generation offerings.”