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Satnews Daily
March 13th, 2019

First Broadband Provider Signs On for Telesat LEO Services


Telesat and OmniAccess have signed a major, multi-year contract for broadband service on Telesat’s LEO satellite constellation, which is planned to enter commercial operations in 2022.


“The future is already here — it is just not very evenly distributed” - William Ford Gibson

OmniAccess specializes in maritime connectivity solutions and is the first broadband provider worldwide to contract for Telesat’s LEO services. They will become an important partner for Telesat LEO and the agreement provides OmniAccess with certain limited exclusivity to serve the superyacht market.

Telesat LEO’s advanced combination of high throughput, low latency and full global coverage (including over the poles) will allow OmniAccess to deliver an unsurpassed user experience to its customers, including vessels on the most difficult to serve ocean routes. Telesat LEO will have the added capability to concentrate capacity into areas of highest demand, such as major seaports, providing substantially more capacity than is available from other systems.  

Executive Comments

Bertrand Hartman, CEO and founder of OmniAccess, said t is difficult to overestimate the impact the advent of Telesat’s unique LEO service will have on the maritime industry at large,” said . “Telesat LEO will allow us to offer a truly global service, combining an extreme level of availability, unprecedented speed levels and an ultra-low latency that rivals, or even exceeds, the fastest of today’s landbased fiber-connections. For the first time in history, onboard systems and services will no longer be restricted by the limits imposed by today’s GEO & MEO-based technologies, finally bridging a digital divide that has held back onboard IT applications for so long.

Dan Goldberg, President and CEO of Telesat, added that OmniAccess is a leader in providing broadband connectivity to superyachts and other high-end maritime segments and Telesat is delighted to be building on this longstanding partnership by signing them as the firm's first Telesat LEO customer. This commitment by OmniAccess to Telesat LEO is another strong endorsement of the transformational design and performance advantages of the company's system. Telesat’s state-of-the-art LEO constellation will deliver an unmatched broadband experience — affordable, high throughput, ultra-low latency and ubiquitous coverage — providing companies like OmniAccess with a sustainable competitive advantage in their markets.