Huawei achieved download speeds of up to 660 Mbit/s in the test. It is not clear whether the manufacturer uses its own satellites or those from China.

Huawei joins a select group seeking to provide global internet via satellite. SpaceX has launched a successful product with Starlink with 1.5 million subscribers. Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ space company, is also working on such a solution, but currently has no commercial product on the market and only launched its first test satellites earlier this month.

As with Starlink, the Huawei terminal on Earth makes contact with satellites in LEO (Low Earth Orbit). The manufacturer did not publish an international communication about the test. It posted a presentation with some slides on the Chinese social media platform Weibo. Among other things, it points out a maximum download speed of 660 Mbit/s in the test and a maximum upload speed of 135 Mbit/s.

With the satellite solution, Huawei aims to provide connectivity worldwide, but is primarily focused on areas that are currently challenging or do not yet have internet connectivity.

It is not yet clear what the next steps towards a commercial product will be. Does Huawei have its own satellites on China’s Long March 2C rocket or is it using the national LEO satellites that China launched in March this year? Huawei wants to work on a solution. How things will continue in concrete terms remains unclear.