{"id":19033,"date":"2019-07-16T17:35:17","date_gmt":"2019-07-16T16:35:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/?p=19033"},"modified":"2019-07-17T06:40:21","modified_gmt":"2019-07-17T05:40:21","slug":"live-test-of-onewebs-leo-satellite-broadband-network-hits-400mbps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2019\/07\/live-test-of-onewebs-leo-satellite-broadband-network-hits-400mbps.html","title":{"rendered":"Live Test of OneWeb’s LEO Satellite Broadband Network Hits 400Mbps"},"content":{"rendered":"

British space company OneWeb<\/a> has just conducted the first live test of their new compact ultrafast broadband satellites in circular Low Earth Orbit (LEO), which achieved top data speeds of up to 400Mbps and a latency time of under 40 milliseconds (very impressive for a space based comms technology).<\/p>\n

At present the company has only launched six (OneWeb<\/a> F6) of their spacecraft (here<\/a>) into orbit (trial deployment) but if all goes well then they hope to “embark on the largest satellite<\/a> launch campaign in history.<\/em>” Starting in Q4 2019, they will begin monthly launches of more than 30 satellites at a time, creating an initial constellation of 650 satellites<\/strong> to enable full global coverage by 2021 (adding more as demand requires – potentially up to 1,980 satellites).<\/p>\n

NOTE:<\/strong> A partial commercial service could begin as early as 2020.<\/div>\n

Each Airbus built satellite<\/a>, which is designed to communicate with Earth via the Ka band<\/strong> (20-30GHz) and Ku band<\/strong> (11-14GHz) spectrum, weighs around 150kg+ and is roughly waist high (with solar panels folded-in). Previous reports have suggested that latency times of around 25-35ms and broadband speeds of 100Mbps+ (peak speeds of 500Mbps) may be possible per user.<\/p>\n

The first “successful<\/em>” tests of this new satellite<\/a> network have now taken place in Seoul (South Korea), which appeared able to deliver peak speeds of 400Mbps and latency times of less than 40ms. By comparison you’d expect latency times of 300ms+ from larger GEO Stationary Orbit (GSO) satellites.<\/p>\n

The recent tests were conducted in partnership with Intellian, the developer and manufacturer of OneWeb<\/a> user terminals and SatixFy, developer and manufacturer of the 125MHz SCPC test modem. The tests included: latency, speed, jitter, seamless handover between satellites and power control.<\/p>\n