Photo shows China's first low-Earth 5G broadband satellite. (Photo/China News Service)
China's first low-Earth 5G broadband satellite with a high capacity to meet international competition will be launched by Chinese commercial aerospace company Galaxy Space at the end of December, according to a statement sent to the Global Times on Thursday.
The satellite is the first in China to be built with a capacity of 10 gigabits per second (Gbps), and it will be the world's first low-Earth broadband satellite in the Q/V band, an extremely high frequency band, the company said.
The satellite has already been developed and ground tests have been carried out with stable results. Once in place, the satellite will be able to cover an area of 300,000 square kilometers, roughly 50 times the size of Shanghai. It is expected to narrow the technological gap between Chinese companies and US companies Oneweb and SpaceX, who have already deployed low-Earth communications satellites.
It is increasingly important for Chinese commercial aerospace companies to achieve high spectrum band resources, alongside the rapid development of global commercial communications satellites, Zhang Shijie, an aerospace expert, told the Global Times on Thursday.
The broad coverage of low-Earth satellites could mean easier access to internet for people in remote areas, as well as more simultaneous data transmission for time-sensitive professions, including live news broadcasting and trading.
