Surging demand for ubiquitous connectivity in underserved locations and in mobility applications such as in-flight connectivity has sparked a market shift toward multiorbit and hybrid network technologies. 

The rise of constellations has transformed the connectivity industry in the past decade and sparked demand for new technologies, particularly in the mobility sector, Paul Gaske, chief operating officer at Germantown, Md.-based satcom provider Hughes Network Systems, tells Connectivity Business News in this episode of “The Dish” podcast. 

“Obviously, [10 years ago] there were no low Earth orbit (LEO) technologies to speak of,” Gaske says. “Now you have LEO constellations, so that gives a whole new dimension that we can add.” 

An aircraft in motion requires the ubiquitous coverage of a LEO constellation but also depends on the high capacity provided by a large geostationary (GEO) satellite, he says. 

“If you think about an aircraft starting at a gate and then taking off and going up into its flight path and beyond, you have different situations around the airport on the ground and you need a tremendous amount of [connectivity],” Gaske tells CBN.  

Once an aircraft is in the air, it shares satellite capacity with hundreds of other moving aircraft, he says. 

Hughes in July 2023 launched its Jupiter-3 GEO satellite, the largest commercial payload launched to date, Gaske says. Since service from the satellite was turned on in December 2023, Hughes has been able to deliver 100 megabit-per-second circuits to rural locations across the United States, Mexico and parts of South America, he tells CBN. 

“It’s more than double the capacity of what we already had,” he says. 

But the bus-sized satellite can go beyond providing rural broadband. For instance, Hughes will combine its Jupiter-3 capacity with LEO services in partnership with satellite operator Eutelsat-OneWeb to enable in-flight connectivity (IFC), Gaske says. 

Tune into this episode of “The Dish” with the Hughes COO to learn how the company plans to serve the broader customer. 

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