Telesat and Telefónica complete 5G backhaul trial using LEO satellite
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Telesat and Telefónica complete 5G backhaul trial using LEO satellite

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Telesat and Telefónica Global Solutions have completed the first 5G Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite backhaul demonstration in Brazil and Latin America.

The trial was managed by Telefónica Global Solutions (TGS), the Telefónica Group’s satellite service provider, with its engineering teams along with with Telesat's engineering teams working together in tandem.

“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,” said Eloy Rodríguez Villa, SVP of global wholesale customers, Telefónica Global Solutions.

“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.”

Telesat's Phase 1 LEO satellite layer 2 backhaul link was connected to TGS’s 5G test environment.

While a 85cm Intellian gyro-stabilized Ka-band terminal with a 10 Watt BUC, connected Telefónica Global Solutions’ data streams to the Phase 1 LEO satellite. This proved that a small, carrier-grade terminal can achieve the desired performance to support a 5G backhaul network.

“Satellite backhaul is a perfect application for Telesat Lightspeed, with the ability to deliver multiple Gbps into remote communities with transformative performance and economics,” said Mauro Wajnberg, General Manager of Telesat Brasil.

“We were honoured to expand our testing campaigns with one of our long-standing partners.”

In addition, a range applications were tested across the satellite backhaul link, including upload and download speed and video streaming.

Network measurements of latency, jitter and bitrate were monitored during the trial, all meeting the functional requirements for integration with a 5G core network.

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