“Seeing our research and development efforts culminate in this successful bi-directional satellite connection is like a dream come true,” said Dr. Nathan Kundtz, Founder and CTO of Kymeta. “Our engineering team has worked many late hours to accomplish today’s demonstration, and it is a testament not only to our technology but also to our team of talented individuals working at Kymeta.”

The demonstration was held on December 10, 2013 at Telesat’s teleport in Vancouver, B.C., using Ka-band capacity on Telesat’s Anik F2 satellite. The completion of the demonstration required obtaining regulatory certifications for Ka-band transmissions, made possible through collaboration with Telesat. iDirect provided the modem technologies used in the demonstration. After initial tests of bi-directional Internet connectivity and video streaming via the Kymeta transceiver equipment, the team also launched a bi-directional Skype video call from a laptop at the demonstration site to Kymeta’s corporate headquarters in Redmond, Wash., where a team celebration was held.

“This is a tremendous milestone for our company,” said Vern Fotheringham, Chairman and CEO of Kymeta. “This successful demonstration proves that our technology is ready for commercial production, and we’re excited to move full steam ahead to develop transformative products and solutions for fixed, portable and mobile applications.”

Kymeta is expected to have prototype units ready for field trials in 2014 with initial availability of commercial products in early 2015.