High Throughput Satellite (HTS)

A High Throughput Satellite (HTS) is a Ka or Ku satellite that uses many narrow spot beams with frequency reuse to deliver far more total capacity than a wide-beam satellite. Reusing the same frequencies across geographically separated beams multiplies aggregate throughput, often by an order of magnitude, at lower cost per bit. Maritime HTS underpins services like Inmarsat Global Xpress and Ka-band VSAT fleets, giving ships tens of megabits per second. The trade-off is narrower beams, more handovers along a route, and greater rain-fade sensitivity at Ka frequencies.