A SatixFy chip. Photo: SatixFy

SatixFy has landed a deal to supply chips to Astrome, in a move the company says takes its business into the terrestrial 5G market and establishes a foothold in India. Astrome is a tech startup based in Bengaluru, India, developing a “Gigamesh” terrestrial backhaul technology. 

GigaMesh is a multi-gigabit wireless X-haul radio that Astrome is developing to deploy 5G in suburban areas and broadband in rural areas. SatixFy’s PRIME 1 beamformer chip will power Astrome’s next-gen GigaMesh product, which it claims is one of the only point-to-multi-point E-band high-speed link for terrestrial 5G in the world. 

The PRIME 1 beamformer chip was initially developed as a building block for SatixFy’s satellite antenna systems. It supports up to 32 antenna elements and can be digitally connected to other PRIME chips to rapidly build a range of antennas. The PRIME 1 chip was developed with the support of the UK Space Agency via the European Space Agency’s ARTES Core Competitiveness Programme. SatixFy did a 5G/Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) demonstration with OneWeb and ESA in June 2022. 

SatixFy has mainly focused on satellite ground and space segment products, and CEO Ido Gur says entering the terrestrial 5G wireless backhaul market strongly expands its total addressable market. 

“This new collaboration demonstrates a real appetite for SatixFy’s digital beamforming chips in this new market for us. Furthermore, we are proud that Astrome will be leveraging our competitive edge with our point-to-multipoint capabilities, which will bring them a significant time-to-market advantage over legacy 5G backhaul competitors,” CEO Gur said.