On December 15, 1995 the V band at 60 GHz was used by the world's first crosslink communication between satellites in a constellation. This communication was between the U.S.
Milstar 1 and Milstar 2 military satellites. 60 GHz is attractive for secure satellite crosslinks because it allows for high data rates, narrow beams and, lying in a strong
absorption band of
oxygen, provides protection against intercept by ground-based adversaries.
Very short range Wi-Fi The
WiGig standard
IEEE 802.11ad and
IEEE 802.11ay utilize the 60 GHz (
EHF microwave) spectrum with data transfer rates of up to 7 Gbit/s for very short ranges of up to
Wireless broadband Internet service providers are looking for ways to expand
gigabit high-speed services to their customers. These can be achieved through
fiber to the premises broadband network architecture, or a more affordable alternative using
fixed wireless in the
last mile in combination with the fiber networks in the
middle mile in order to reduce the costs of trenching fiber optic cables to the users. In the United States and several other countries, V band is unlicensed. This makes V band an appealing choice to be used as fixed wireless access for gigabit services to connect to homes and businesses. V-band radios are available in both Point to Point (P2P) and Point to Multipoint (P2MP) configurations.
Satellite constellations , several US, UK and Canadian companies—
Boeing,
SpaceX,
OneWeb,
Telesat,
O3b Networks and
Theia Holdings—have each filed with the
US regulatory authorities (FCC) "plans to field
constellations of V-band satellites in non-
geosynchronous orbits to provide communications services", an electromagnetic spectrum that had not previously been "heavily employed for commercial communications services". In 2020, SpaceX was granted permission by the FCC to launch 12,000 satellites that are able to use these frequencies. In September 2022, Boeing launched a V-band technology demonstrator satellite known as Varuna as a rideshare payload. In November 2021, Boeing had obtained a FCC license to operate a 147-satellite V-band constellation, however in October 2023 Boeing had the license cancelled following a strategic business decision not to proceed with the constellation. == References ==