China beats Starlink to hi-res space-ground laser transmission at 6G standard

China has achieved a breakthrough in satellite-to-ground laser communications that could pave the way for 6G and other applications including remote sensing with ultra-high resolution and next generation satellite positioning technology.

Chang Guang Satellite Technology Co, which owns Jilin-1, the world’s largest sub-metre commercial remote sensing satellite constellation, said it achieved a 100 gigabit per second ultra-high-speed image data transmission rate in testing last weekend.

The feat – 10 times the speed of its previous record – was accomplished between a truck-mounted ground station and one of the 117 satellites that currently make up the Jilin-1 constellation, the company said.

According to Wang Hanghang, the company’s head of laser communication ground station technology, the development puts Chang Guang Satellite ahead of Elon Musk’s Starlink.

“Musk’s Starlink has revealed its laser inter-satellite communication system but hasn’t deployed laser satellite-to-ground communication yet. We think they might have the technology, but we’ve already started large-scale deployment,” he said.

“We plan to deploy these laser communication units across all satellites in the Jilin-1 constellation to improve their efficiency, with a goal of networking 300 satellites by 2027.”