Short answer
It depends on the site. LEO needs no tower build and no line-of-sight relay, so it activates faster in remote regions, difficult terrain, long-distance or temporary deployments. Where a stable line of sight is available, an engineered microwave link can outperform LEO for enterprise use.
In detail
How the two compare:
- Infrastructure: LEO needs a clear view of the sky at your site; microwave needs line of sight to a high site or tower, confirmed by desktop and physical RF assessment.
- Speed to deploy: LEO is generally faster than new terrestrial builds; microwave installation can follow within weeks once line of sight is confirmed.
- Performance: LEO offers typical latency of around 50 to 80 ms and speeds up to around 150 Mbps depending on profile; licensed microwave is carrier-grade, engineered fixed access.
- Weather: higher-frequency microwave can be weather-sensitive, and LEO can be affected by severe weather.
- Order of preference: for fixed sites without fibre, FirstNet assesses microwave before fixed wireless, LTE/5G and finally LEO.
FirstNet assesses both during feasibility and recommends the option that fits your site and resilience goals. At critical sites the two can also be combined, giving two paths that do not share fibre's trench.
Source: FirstNet LEO Satellite Connectivity service page →
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