London and Ottawa, 22nd February 2024: Avanti Communications (“Avanti”) today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with one of the world’s largest and most innovative satellite operators, Telesat (NASDAQ and TSX: TSAT), to test and develop LEO services as part of its global strategy to deliver bespoke, multi-orbit solutions to customers at scale.
Avanti plans to incorporate Telesat’s Lightspeed™ services into its network to provide affordable, high quality broadband connectivity worldwide. Telesat’s innovative global network is composed of 198 state-of-the-art LEO satellites that are seamlessly integrated with on-ground networks.
Avanti is investing heavily in strategic partnerships and its managed services to meet customers’ requirements in an evolving industry where demand for capacity is growing. Avanti’s first low-latency LEO constellation agreement will support the execution of Avanti’s new strategy, which is built on a “customer pull” vs. “technology push” model.
The collaboration will be optimised to serve the critical connectivity requirements of Avanti’s enterprise and government customers once the Telesat Lightspeed constellation is operational in 2027.
Toby Robinson, Chief of Strategy and Business Development at Avanti, said: “Avanti has already transformed into a customer-led business and will now embark on the next phase of its journey to meet customers’ requirements with multi-orbit solutions tailored to individual needs. The Telesat Lightspeed service will specifically target our enterprise and government customers, enabling us to deliver on our commitment to cater to the most complex requirements while maintaining the high performance, reliability and quality of service our customers expect.”
Glenn Katz, Chief Commercial officer at Telesat, said: “We are delighted to work with partners like Avanti, who recognize the unique value and innovation that Telesat Lightspeed provides for resilient, global connectivity. Integration of Avanti’s EMEA terrestrial infrastructure into the Telesat Lightspeed network provides promising synergies and optimizations for both organizations.”
Additionally, under the terms of the agreement, Telesat will explore combining Avanti’s landing stations, Points of Presences (PoPs), terrestrial connectivity, site hosting and management services as part of its global terrestrial infrastructure that seamlessly integrates with the Telesat Lightspeed satellite network.