Orange and Telesat open Lightspeed gateway in France

TL;DR: Orange and Telesat this week commissioned the first European gateway for Telesat's Lightspeed low-Earth orbit satellite network at Orange's Bercenay-en-Othe teleport in France. The site includes 10 gateway antennas, will connect to a planned Telesat point of presence in Paris, and supports Telesat's plan to launch global commercial Lightspeed services in early 2028.

Orange and Telesat this week commissioned the first European gateway for Telesat's Lightspeed low-Earth orbit constellation at Orange's Bercenay-en-Othe teleport in France. Orange said the rural site, about 100 miles from Paris, now hosts the new gateway as part of its satellite infrastructure.

The Bercenay-en-Othe gateway uses 10 antennas ranging from 1 meter to 4 meters in height. Orange removed an unused 32-meter geostationary satellite antenna to make room for the installation. Orange said the site already has 46 antennas ranging from 1 meter to 32 meters and will provide terrestrial connectivity from the gateway to Telesat's planned point of presence in Paris for mission-critical applications.

The gateway will be used both for Orange wholesale and enterprise customers and for Telesat customers. Orange said satellite accounts for 2% of total communications on its networks and is used to extend coverage in remote areas and support emergency situations when terrestrial networks are unavailable.

For Telesat, the France gateway is one of 24 landing stations planned worldwide for the Lightspeed network. Telesat plans an initial Lightspeed constellation of 225 satellites and expects global commercial service in early 2028. Orange highlighted that the Lightspeed satellites will use optical inter-satellite links, allowing customer traffic to remain in space until delivery to a Telesat ground station or a customer's private facility.