Rivada Plan to Launch Constellation of 600 LEO Broadband Satellites

Rivada Space Networks has become the latest company to announce a plan to launch their own mega-constellation of 600 broadband satellites into Low Earth Orbit (LEO), which will serve the Telecom, Enterprise, Maritime, Energy and Government services markets. But they’re also “planning” to tackle poor connectivity in rural areas.

At present, there are already a few LEO broadband constellations in active deployment, with Starlink (SpaceX) and OneWeb being two of the most well-known brands. On top of that, there are also a number of rivals that are getting close to the deployment phase, with Amazon’s Project Kuiper being one of the most mature. But most of the other players still haven’t left the drawing board.

The latest to enter the early planning phase is Rivada Space Networks, which was established by US-based Rivada Networks and will be based in Germany. At present the details are still quite thin, but the company is planning to launch a new global network of 600 LEOs – using the Ka-band radio spectrum. The first launch is anticipated to occur in 2024, with network completion then being achieved by mid-2028.

“The constellation’s unique architecture, high speed and low latency, combined with Rivada’s dynamic pricing and open access technology, will also make it possible to bring internet access to remote and underserved areas where no backhaul is currently available,” said the announcement.

The company is currently undertaking an RFI with major satellite manufacturers to finalize the system design and manufacturing plan, paving the way for the production and deployment of the entire constellation.

Declan Ganley, Rivada Space Networks Founder, said:

“Our goal is to leverage the unique strengths of low-latency satellite communication to provide an enterprise-grade on demand experience anywhere in the world from any platform. Rivada Space Networks will not only provide a competitive advantage, it will help to expand these markets by enabling new opportunities through previously unavailable levels of performance combined with global reach. When wireless technologies converge with satellite over a single, highly secure network – you are going to get the best of both worlds.”

Apparently, the new network will also utilise some of Rivada Networks patented terrestrial wireless technologies to help optimize network utilization and facilitate the buying and selling of broadband capacity, such as via their Dynamic Spectrum Arbitrage and Open Access platforms.

Over the past few years, the deployment of LEOs has become much more attractive, although it’s worth pointing out that even the first and most established networks (Starlink and OneWeb) still have a lot to prove in terms of the business case and gaining a return on their initially huge investment. On top of that, they continue to cause growing problems for observational sciences, which looks set to only get worse with today’s announcement.

In any case, the projected launch window for 2024 looks optimistic – especially given the loss of Russia’s launch capacity from the market, unless that merely refers to the window for their first satellite prototypes (test platforms).