Telesat Lightspeed constellation. Photo: Telesat and VIa Satellite illustration

Telesat has reached an agreement with satellite service provider NSSLGlobal to collaborate on the commercial and technical aspects of Telesat’s Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) constellation Lightspeed. 

Under the agreement, NSSLGlobal will integrate Telesat Lightspeed services into its value-added network. NSSLGlobal plans to serve as a commercial partner and market Lightspeed services to the European defense and maritime markets. 

NSSLGlobal will also work with Telesat on European end user testing from the NSSLGlobal United Kingdom headquarters. The company will support Telesat with service testing, performance validation, and field testing user terminals from a range of providers. 

NSSLGlobal has conducted live demonstrations on the test Telesat LEO satellite. The company said that this constellation will be a “game changer” for long-standing customers. 

“Telesat Lightspeed is the only LEO satellite constellation offering that has been specifically designed first and foremost for mobility customers on land, sea and air.  As cloud-based services become ever more prevalent within our customers’ networks, it is vital that we are able to support these latency-sensitive applications whilst continuing to guarantee our government and maritime customers the highest levels of security, support and the value-added services that they have come to expect from NSSLGlobal,” commented NSSLGlobal Group CEO Sally-Anne Ray.  

Telesat has recently secured financing for the Lightspeed constellation, with an agreement from the government of Canada to invest an additional $1.44 billion Canadian dollars if the operator meets Canadian capital and operating expenditures requirements. Earlier this month,  the government of Ontario announced that it is investing $109 million Canadian dollars for dedicated capacity on the network.