Speedcast Completes Oil & Gas Industry Performance Testing on Telesat’s Phase 1 LEO Satellite for Petrobras

 June 29, 2021

Speedcast has completed an oil and gas industry performance testing of Telesat’s Phase 1 LEO satellite using data provided by Brazilian state-owned petroleum company, Petrobras. Identified testing data was selected to represent the company’s typical data, voice and video applications. The testing program is part of Speedcast’s ongoing commitment to evaluate technology advances with the potential to expand the quality and scope of services for its global customers who require high-performance connectivity solutions for their critical, maximum-uptime operations.

Consisting of nine individual tests, the program measured overall performance of throughput, latency, packet loss and jitter across applications including videoconferencing, video streaming, web browsing, file transfer, voice and remote desktop. Results showed latencies of about 35 milliseconds, which is indicative of the final Telesat Lightspeed network design, whereas the other performance factors demonstrated the ability to move data reliably across the satellite. Testing over the robust Ka-band link demonstrated latency, data rates and application performance that are equivalent to a fiber-connected office environment. This enables the use of secure, cloud-based applications such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, which require a lower latency than what’s possible with a Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) satellite.

Overall, these tests demonstrated that a LEO satellite can provide an experience equivalent to or better than an office environment, enabling the integration of LEO into a combined solution to meet customers’ needs and provide a reliable, low-latency solution.

“The testing program successfully proved that Telesat Lightspeed offers a technically capable solution with impressive latency that will enable new applications for specific customer operating environments,” said André Gustavo Sant’Anna, Brazil Country Manager at Speedcast.

“LEO will be another technology that Speedcast leverages to design complete managed solutions that deliver the high quality of service our customers require for their critical operations around the world,” said Will Mudge, Vice President of Engineering Operations at Speedcast. “We are pleased to have partnered with Telesat and Petrobras in this important evaluation program. We have a shared vision in striving for continual technological advancements to enhance remote operations today and in the future.” 

Telesat launched its first LEO satellite in January 2018 to support live demonstrations across a variety of markets and applications. Live demonstrations allow Telesat customers and LEO hardware vendors to test low-latency, high-throughput performance, satellite tracking and Doppler compensation. Speedcast and Petrobras join a group of organizations that completed testing of Telesat Lightspeed, including various enterprise and government telecommunications companies.

“Telesat works collaboratively with its customers to deliver robust connectivity solutions that improve their operations and drive growth,” said Tom Eaton, Vice President of International Sales at Telesat. “Bringing together Speedcast and Petrobras to conduct critical testing efforts ensures we deliver the most effective, future-proofed solution. The program demonstrated what we anticipated – Telesat Lightspeed will expand the technological capabilities available for enhancing effectiveness of oilfield operations in all production lifecycles. We look forward to the future of a more efficient digital oilfield, backed by the support of our valued customer Speedcast.”