Teleport
A specialised facility housing large satellite earth station antennas and associated baseband, RF, and network equipment, used to provide managed satellite uplink, downlink, and value-added services to customers.
Full Definition
A teleport is a commercial or governmental satellite ground facility that aggregates multiple large antennas and the associated signal processing infrastructure to offer satellite-based communications services. Services provided from a teleport typically include satellite uplink, downlink, signal monitoring, transcoding, playout, and terrestrial interconnection. Teleports differ from simple earth stations in their scale, multi-tenancy, and service orientation. The term 'teleport' is one word and does not require a hyphen or qualifier; it should not be confused with a 'hub earth station', which denotes a specific network role rather than a commercial facility. The World Teleport Association (WTA) is the primary industry body.
Usage
Usage note: One word, no hyphen. Not synonymous with 'hub earth station', which describes a network topology role, not a facility type. Capitalise only when part of a proper name (e.g., 'the Frankfurt Teleport').
In Context
- "The broadcaster contracted a teleport in the UK to provide 24/7 uplink and playout services for its European satellite channel." — Service Level Agreement
- "The teleport's 13 m Ku-band antenna was certified to ITU-R S.580 pointing accuracy requirements." — Facility Specification Sheet