Bureau 1440 Tests Satellite Cellular Backhaul From the Siberian Taiga

Russian aerospace startup Bureau 1440 demonstrated a hybrid satellite-cellular link at the Digital Solutions forum, routing live video between an isolated site in the Krasnoyarsk region's taiga and Moscow without physical transport cables.

The test relied on low-Earth orbit satellites from the company's Rassvet constellation. On the ground, an active phased array terminal provided the backhaul link directly to a cellular base station built by YADRO, which in turn routed traffic into MegaFon's mobile network core. According to the companies, this is the first domestic demonstration where low-Earth orbit infrastructure served as the cellular backhaul for a remote Russian site.

The group is targeting industrial installations, emergency services, and transport corridors where stringing terrestrial fiber is economically or geographically prohibitive. Parallel to the live link demonstration, Bureau 1440 showcased its terminal hardware lineup. The production-bound 1440.ULTRA terminal measures 600 by 600 millimeters, delivers up to 700 Mbps, and is rated IP67 against dust and water immersion. A compact portable concept, the 300 by 300 millimeter 1440.MINI, claims speeds around 100 Mbps but remains in development with no announced production timeline.

While the company has also tested rail-mounted terminals on high-speed trains and announced early airline integration agreements, the primary bottleneck remains constellation scale: a live demo with a handful of test satellites in orbit proves the radio protocol, but round-the-clock commercial coverage will require launching hundreds of operational spacecraft.

Source: habr