BT Group Completes Live Field Trial of 4G Backhaul with OneWeb

A huge milestone for UK digital infrastructure as BT Group has confirmed a successful live field trial as a 4G LTE cell site has been backhauled over OneWeb’s LEO network for the first time.

This ground-breaking trial saw excellent results and illustrates the potential of our network as we and BT to continue to enhance our joint offering. We look forward to continuing to work together to enhance high-speed connectivity across the UK.

Our partnership with OneWeb continues to go from strength to strength. Building on our recent success of achieving the first transmission of 4G data using a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite link, we’ve now completed a live field trial – the first time ever that a 4G LTE cell site has been backhauled over OneWeb’s LEO constellation and handed off via a dedicated high-performance interconnect to an operator’s mobile core network.

Howard WatsonHoward Watson, Chief Security and Networks Officer, BT Group

The trial allowed us to evaluate the availability, throughput and latency characteristics of the LEO satellites and OneWeb’s core IP wide area network. The results were highly encouraging, and prove the ease of integrating LEO satellite communications with existing backhaul designs. This promising development allows us to progress to the next stage of our strategy, in which we will implement a multi-orbital and multi-constellation space strategy.