High-throughput satellite

An HTS provides at least twice, though usually 20 times or more,[1] throughput for the same amount of allocated orbital spectrum, thus significantly reducing cost-per-bit.

[5] The significant increase in capacity is achieved by a high level frequency re-use and spot beam technology which enables frequency re-use across multiple narrowly focused[1] spot beams (usually in the order of hundreds of kilometers),[1] as in cellular networks, which both are defining technical features of high-throughput satellites.

By contrast traditional satellite technology utilizes a broad single beam (usually in the order of thousands of kilometers)[1] to cover wide regions or even entire continents.

[1] In addition to a large amount of bandwidth capacity HTS are defined by the fact that they often, but not solely, target the consumer market.

HTS can furthermore support point-to-multipoint applications and even broadcast services such as DTH distribution to relatively small geographic areas served by a single spot beam.