Following a review of planned non-geostationary-orbit (NGSO) constellations, Global Eagle is to collaborate with satellite operator Telesat to optimise the capabilities of Telesat’s LEO system to serve growing broadband requirements of maritime and aeronautical markets.
The collaboration will include user terminal development, service-offering design, marketing, in-flight testing and at-sea performance testing.
Telesat and Global Eagle will work together on design and testing activities for Telesat’s planned LEO constellation using Telesat’s recently launched Phase 1 LEO satellite. The parties will focus on airline and large cruise ship applications in polar and high-latitude regions, and passenger use-cases globally that leverage sub-50 millisecond latency for data-intensive applications. For aviation, Global Eagle will be testing its newly developed Ka-band antenna.
“Global Eagle uses Telesat geostationary satellites today to deliver high-performing wireless broadband to millions of airline and cruise passengers,” said Josh Marks, CEO of Global Eagle. “We believe advanced LEO systems like Telesat’s can offer important advantages for aviation and cruise markets, including consistent global coverage, very low latency, and gigabit connections. Telesat’s open architecture can provide Global Eagle’s customers with an easy upgrade path to add LEO capacity to existing GEO systems, avoiding technological or economic lock-in to legacy technologies. We can also bring new technologies to our customers more quickly building on our open architecture. Global Eagle is very excited about this collaboration and eager to begin testing on Telesat’s Phase 1 LEO satellite.”
“Mobility has long been a key sector for Telesat and we are very pleased that Global Eagle, a recognized leader in mobile broadband, has decided to collaborate on serving aviation and cruise markets beginning with live testing on Telesat’s Phase 1 LEO satellite,” said Dan Goldberg, President and CEO of Telesat. “Telesat’s LEO system is designed to deliver low latency, high speed broadband with the ability to instantly allocate bandwidth where it’s most needed – a key benefit for mobility customers. Our collaboration with Global Eagle is further confirmation that the innovative design of Telesat’s LEO system offers many advantages to aeronautical and maritime markets. We look forward to benefiting from Global Eagle’s expertise as Telesat works to optimise the service offerings and network capabilities of our LEO system.”
