Telesat and Orange commission first European Lightspeed gateway

On September 17 Telesat LEO ULC and Orange said they had commissioned the first European gateway for the Telesat Lightspeed constellation, hosted at Orange's World Teleport Association Tier-4 certified teleport in Bercenay-en-Othe, France. Orange is supplying a secure high-speed terrestrial link from the landing station to Telesat's planned Paris point of presence, and the site uses Intellian gateway antennas sized for the planned initial 225-satellite Lightspeed network. Telesat chief commercial officer Glenn Katz tied the build-out to an anticipated global in-service date of Q1 2028 and said the companies would look at further collaboration, including for Orange customers in Europe, Africa and elsewhere.