Philippine ISP PLDT and Canadian satellite operator Telesat announced that they have successfully conducted the country’s first testing of on-orbit high-speed broadband connectivity using the latter’s Phase 1 Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite.
The said testing was done from February 11 to 19 by PLDT using an 85cm Intellian parabolic antenna placed at the local telco’s Greenhills office in San Juan, which was then connected to the said LEO satellite.
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During the test, they were able to achieve broadband download speeds of 100.46Mbps and uploads of 95.62Mbps, with a roundtrip latency of 26.53ms. As per the company, such speeds are more than enough for video meetings using Microsoft Teams, lag-free online mobile gaming, buffer-free streaming, and Facebook Live.
The success of the testing proves that PLDT and Smart Communications can add innovations from the satellite industry to their services. Such technologies could be very useful in reaching far-flung areas in archipelagos like the Philippines.
Once implemented, PLDT could be the first telco to launch services, beating SpaceX’s Starlink to the punch, which is expected to arrive in the country by 2023.