The test is a huge achievement for ESA's laser-based communication, and brings the technology one step forward to becoming a mainstream solution for satellite communication for aircraft. François Lombard, Head of Connected Intelligence at Airbus Defence and Space, claims that this milestone will open the door for future laser satellite communications, for both commercial and military use, "in the next decades." Having laser-based communication between satellites and aircraft will open the door to having high-speed internet — with speeds competitive with outgoing fiberoptic internet service providers on the ground — on aircraft. This type of capability is something that has been impossible to accomplish with radio-based satellites. Lasers operate at significantly faster speeds than radio waves, and their narrow beams enable satellites to bypass radio frequency slowdowns affected by the increasingly congested radio waves flooding the world. Laser-based satellites exist, but haven't been able to generate Gbps bandwidth at such great heights, nor with aircraft serving as the base connection on earth. The TeraByte InfraRed Delivery (TBIRD) satellite was able to achieve a whopping 200 Gbps data transfer — but only at an orbit of just 530 km above the surface. ESA, TNO, and TESAT's record-breaking 2.6 Gbps transmission comes at a time when satellite launches are becoming increasingly more abundant — and will further increase radio frequency traffic in space. In 2026, SpaceX plans to launch over 1 million satellites to build an "Orbital Data Center system." Furthermore, SpaceX is looking to launch 15,000 new Starlink V2 satellites that will have 5G capabilities with "100x the data density" of its outgoing Starlink infrastructure.
Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News , or add us as a preferred source , to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.
Optical device beams data at speeds up to 25 Gbps via light, up to 25 kilometer range with ultra-low latency
Start-up plans to use terahertz radio frequencies for communication between servers instead of copper or optical connections
Researchers built a wireless transceiver that transmits at 15 gigabytes per second, 24 times faster than 5G connections
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/europe-achieves-record-breaking-gigabit-per-second-data-transfer-between-a-geostationary-satellite-and-an-aircraft#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com/subscription
- AI vibe-coded operating system is so bad it can't even run Doom — Vib-OS can't connect to the internet, browser app is an image viewer [Updated]
- Leading Inference Providers Cut AI Costs by up to 10x With Open Source Models on NVIDIA Blackwell
- March Into the Cloud With 15 New Games Coming to GeForce NOW
- Linux hacked onto a PS5 to turn Sony's console into a Steam Machine — GTA V Enhanced Edition runs at 60 FPS on 1440pwith ray tracing
- Asus' excellent 4K OLED gaming monitor falls to its lowest ever price on Amazon — get a 32-inch dual-mode display for just $799
Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.