Short answer
Like all satellite technologies, LEO connectivity can be affected by severe weather conditions. Where business continuity is critical, FirstNet incorporates LEO into a multi-link design, using additional connectivity paths and intelligent failover to improve overall resilience.
In detail
Weather is one of several site factors FirstNet plans around:
- Severe weather: can affect the satellite signal, as with any satellite service.
- Obstructions: dense tree canopy or structures in the antenna's field of view can affect performance, so they are validated during site readiness.
- Mounting and power: a secure mounting position and power at the installation point.
- Diversity: pairing LEO with fibre, LTE/5G or microwave means a weather event does not have to take the site offline.
When LEO is integrated with SD-WAN, traffic can fail over automatically between LEO, fibre, LTE/5G and other available connections. With Peplink bonding, satellite and LTE/5G run in parallel, so live sessions continue if one path degrades.
The aim is resilience by design: no single medium is perfect, but links that fail for different reasons rarely fail at the same moment. FirstNet monitors the LEO link as part of the managed environment.
Source: FirstNet LEO Satellite Connectivity service page →
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