ViaSat’s High-Capacity Satellite Nears Start of Commercial Operations

A new kind of countdown has begun. Carlsbad, CA-based ViaSat (NASDAQ: [[ticker:VSAT]]) says it recently transmitted the first test data to ViaSat-1, the highest capacity communications satellite ever launched into space. The satellite, launched Oct. 19 from Russia’s Baikonour Cosmodrome, successfully relayed e-mail, streaming video, and Web browsing data to ViaSat’s WildBlue high-speed data network.

In a statement today, ViaSat says commercial use of its 140 Gpbs (gigabits per second) satellite is expected to begin before the end of the month. In other words, the total bandwidth capacity of ViaSat-1 exceeds the combined data rate of all current Ku-, Ka-, and C-band satellites now serving North America, according to the company.

ViaSat-1’s coverage includes North America and Hawaii, and is intended to provide high-speed broadband Internet service to WildBlue customers in the United States, Xplornet customers in Canada, and aboard JetBlue Airways’ domestic flights.

The test transmissions were completed December 2 from ViaSat’s Carlsbad campus and relayed by the satellite to a ground station gateway in Milford, UT. After testing has been completed in another week or so, ViaSat-1 manufacturer SpaceSystems/Loral will transfer operation of the satellite to the operator, Telesat. Meanwhile, ViaSat says it plans to complete the integration of its network of 20 ground stations, which will connect the satellite to the Internet backbone.

In the company’s statement, ViaSat chairman and CEO Mark Dankberg says, “We have advanced satellite technology to the point that [our] satellite can now be a better alternative for broadband Internet than DSL, and 3G / 4G wireless offerings for fixed home use – an enormous leap for satellite broadband technology.”

Author: Bruce V. Bigelow

In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here. Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.