Telefonica Explores Backhaul via LEO in Demonstrations With Telesat

Telesat Lightspeed constellation. Photo: Telesat and VIa Satellite illustration

Telesat has revealed details of a new demonstration involving one of the world’s biggest telcos as its Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) plans kick into gear. Telefónica and Telesat completed one of the first 5G LEO satellite backhaul demonstrations in Brazil and Latin America, the companies announced May 25.

The testing campaign was managed with Telefónica Global Solutions (TGS), the Telefónica Group’s satellite service provider, with the participation of its engineering teams and Telesat’s engineering teams as well.. The Telesat Phase 1 LEO satellite layer 2 backhaul link was connected to TGS’s 5G test environment. An 85 cm Intellian Ka-band terminal with a 10 Watt BUC connected Telefónica Global Solutions’ data streams to the Phase 1 LEO, validating that a small, carrier-grade terminal can achieve the desired performance to properly support a 5G backhaul network.

“Building on our successful LEO test with Telesat in Europe, we were eager to evaluate the performance of the Phase 1 LEO integration with a 5G network. With the performance results achieved being close to fibre connectivity, Telesat Lightspeed provides a compelling value proposition for our 5G network rollouts across the globe,” Eloy Rodríguez Villa, senior vice president of Global Wholesale Customers of Telefónica Global Solutions said in a statement.

Telesat recently confirmed plans to downsize its Lightspeed LEO constellation from the planned 298 satellites to 188 with 10 in-orbit spares. Telesat CEO Dan Goldberg gave this update earlier this month as part of Telesat’s first quarter 2022 financial results.