The present invention relates to a satellite communication system arranged for consecutively illuminating a plurality of contours on earth and comprising :
- a transmitter to generate a signal to be transmitted and comprising
* encoding means for mapping a sequence of bits, organized into a hopping frame according to a hopping plan, to a sequence of digital symbols,
* modulation means arranged for receiving said sequence of digital symbols and for modulating said digital symbols on a waveform at a symbol rate, thereby obtaining a modulated signal to be transmitted, and for transmission of the modulated signal, said modulation means being arranged for indicating when a next hopping frame is needed,

- a satellite comprising a beam hopping transponder arranged for receiving the modulated signal and for outputting a version of the modulated signal to an illumination circuit arranged in the satellite for steering illumination from one contour to another particular contour according to the hopping plan, said illumination of that one contour starting at a switching time instant,
- one or more receivers in said particular contour of the contours to be illuminated and arranged for receiving the outputted signal,
- a central controller having an established communication link with at least one of the receivers and arranged for receiving via an established link information on observed illumination transitions, said central controller comprising computation means for computing an adjusted symbol rate for the transmitter based on a comparison of the observed illumination transitions with a target switching time instant.