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OTTAWA, CANADA, and SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL – May 25, 2022 – Telesat (NASDAQ and TSX: TSAT), one of the world’s largest and most innovative satellite operators, and Telefónica  one of the main providers of telecommunications in the world, today announced the successful completion of the first 5G Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite backhaul demonstration in Brazil and Latin America.

The testing campaign was managed with Telefónica Global Solutions (TGS), the Telefónica Group’s satellite service provider, with the participation of its engineering teams together with those of Telesat. The Telesat Phase 1 LEO satellite layer 2 backhaul link was connected to TGS’s state-of-the-art 5G test environment.

An 85cm Intellian gyro-stabilized Ka-band terminal with a 10 Watt BUC connected Telefónica Global Solutions’ data streams to the Phase 1 LEO, validating that a small, carrier-grade terminal can achieve the desired performance to properly support a 5G backhaul network. A variety of applications were tested across the satellite backhaul link, including upload and download speed and video streaming. Network measurements of latency, jitter and bitrate were recorded throughout the testing campaign, all meeting the functional requirements for integration with a 5G core network.

“Building on our successful LEO test with Telesat in Europe, we were eager to evaluate the performance of the Phase 1 LEO integration with a 5G network,” said Eloy Rodríguez Villa, SVP Global Wholesale Customers of Telefónica Global Solutions. “With the performance results achieved being close to fibre connectivity, Telesat Lightspeed provides a compelling value proposition for our 5G network rollouts across the globe.”

“Satellite backhaul is a perfect application for Telesat Lightspeed, with the ability to deliver multiple Gbps into remote communities with transformative performance and economics,” said Mauro Wajnberg, General Manager of Telesat Brasil. “We were honored to expand our testing campaigns with one of our long-standing partners.”