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Satellite Internet

China links Arctic, Antarctica and Tibet Plateau in first 'three poles' satellite internet test

China's polar icebreaker Jidi completed a pre-operational test of domestically built satellite internet along Arctic shipping routes, linking the Arctic, Antarctica and the Tibetan Plateau for the first time.

By James Calloway · · 1 min read

Watercolour editorial illustration of a polar icebreaker in Arctic waters under a night sky of satellite links, with a research station on the shore (illustration, not a photograph)
Illustration: Flip News (AI-generated)

China’s 16th Arctic Ocean expedition team said on Monday that its polar icebreaker Jidi had completed a pre-operational application test of domestically developed satellite internet along Arctic shipping routes, CGTN reported.

The test verified networked communications for the first time across the Arctic, Antarctica, and the Qinghai-Xizang (Tibetan) Plateau — the “three poles” of the Earth — closing what the expedition team described as the last communications coverage gap in the world. A four-way real-time video and voice link connected the Jidi in the Arctic, the Antarctic Qinling Station, a test station at the Lhasa River in Xizang, and the North China Sea Bureau of the Ministry of Natural Resources, with quality reported as clear and smooth. The expedition was organised by China’s Ministry of Natural Resources, according to China Daily.

The milestone builds on a late-September test in which Chinese researchers made an Arctic-to-Antarctic video call using the Guowang constellation, China’s would-be rival to Starlink, with delay reported below one second and peak speeds around 30 megabits per second, the South China Morning Post reported. Guowang is operated by the state-owned China Satellite Network Group; just over 180 of a planned 13,000 satellites are in orbit so far.

Read more on Flip News’s satellite internet hub.

Read next: US warns EU of ‘devastating’ retaliation over satellite spectrum plan · US lawmakers seek probe into Starlink disruption in Ukraine

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