Taiwan wants LEO broadband system
March 19, 2024
By Chris Forrester
Taiwan wants its own satellite broadband system. Taiwan is just 80 miles from China’s mainland, and is anxious that it must have an independent infrastructure in case of near-by crisis. A report in The New York Times says that Taiwan wants to see an initial satellite orbiting by 2026.
Meanwhile, Taiwan has a partnership agreement in place with Luxembourg’s SES and in November Chungwa Telecom, the largest telecom service provider in Taiwan, signed a development agreement with Eutelsat’s OneWeb.
The eventual aim is for a fleet of its own 120 satellites, according to the Taiwan Space Agency (TASA).
Meanwhile, Taiwan’s Minister of Digital Affairs Audrey Tang said the country wanted to install 700 professional satellite receivers in and around the nation so that there would be a plurality of connectivity to many satellites.