Telesat Adds Military Ka-band to Lightspeed Constellation as Global Service Slips to 2028
Telesat plans to allocate 25% of its Lightspeed broadband constellation for military Ka-band as the programs latest delay pushes global service into early 2028.
The Canadian operator announced March 17 it will add 500 megahertz of Mil-Ka to Lightspeeds initial 156 satellites replacing the same amount of commercial Ka-band frequencies on the networks user link.
The geopolitical environment is driving once-in-a-generation increases in defense investments by allied countries globally said Telesat CEO Dan Goldberg during the companys earnings call citing growing demand for mission-critical communications from low Earth orbit.
Goldberg said substantially increasing the global supply of Mil-Ka band would enable Lightspeed to outperform legacy geostationary systems that rely on protected Ka-band spectrum. It will be more resilient more secure more high throughput and lower latency and it will cover the entire planet including the poles.
Because Mil-Ka sits adjacent to commercial Ka-band the change would have a modest cost of about 25 million dollars or less than half a percent of the total cost of the 156 satellites being built by Canadas MDA Space.
The plan requires regulatory approval from Canada and the International Telecommunication Union. The shift would not displace aviation maritime and other commercial services.
On the earnings call Goldberg said Lightspeeds latest delay stems from the readiness of chips needed to power satellite processors and phased-array antennas. The chips were originally developed by Israels SatixFy which MDA bought last year.
The company still has massive amounts of global commercial Ka capacity to meet the requirements of target markets with no modifications to stringent service level agreements.