ThinKom Ka Aero Antenna to Integrate on Telesat Lightspeed LEO Network

Below are a few excerpts from Runway Girl Network's August 3rd article announcing our teaming agreement with Telesat to integrate our Ka-band aero antennas with their new LEO broadband network, Lightspeed^™.

'The market has now recognized the fact that LEO is the future of satellite connectivity because definitely you can solve for high speeds [with GEO] but without solving for latency or dense hot spots…,” said Vinnakota [Telesat's director, product and commercial]. 'So, it’s not a question of LEO versus GEO anymore, it’s a question of — how do we make sure LEO is part of the solution? How do I get to a solution with LEO without sacrificing my investment today?'

ThinKom’s ability to interoperate between LEO and GEO satellites (or indeed MEO/GEO) makes it both attractive and somewhat future-proofed, said Vinnakota, 'and plays well into what airlines are thinking' — that is to manage more of the inflight connectivity themselves.

'It will be straightforward and inexpensive for an airline to modify any of these installed GEO-only Ka2517 antenna systems to interoperate with the Telesat Lightspeed LEO satellite constellation and existing GEO networks,' the two firms stated, intriguingly, in a press release.

Read the full article here.