Archive for the ‘ViaSat’ Category
ViaSat WildBlue Subsidiary Awarded ARRA Stimulus Grant for Rural Satellite Broadband Access
ViaSat Inc. subsidiary WildBlue Communications LLC has been awarded an estimated $19.5 million in grant funding by the Department of Agriculture Rural Utilities Service (RUS) under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 (ARRA) to connect unserved residents to affordable broadband services. The funding is in response to WildBlue’s Western Regional Proposal to the RUS, which focused on providing service to less densely populated areas in 20 western and midwestern states which have no access to broadband services offered by terrestrial carriers, including many areas which are economically disadvantaged. The award is conditional on reaching agreement on terms and conditions with the RUS.
WildBlue, with co-applicants DIRECTV and DISH, submitted its Western Regional Proposal, requesting a grant to activate new subscribers in the western U.S. Subscribers covered by the grant would receive service from one of WildBlue’s three current satellites – Anik-F2, WildBlue-1, and AMC-15 – and starting in mid 2011, from the new high-capacity ViaSat-1 satellite.
ViaSat Deploys Airborne COTM Terminal on USAF MC-12 Liberty Aircraft
ViaSat Inc. has deployed airborne communications-on-the-move (COTM) terminals onboard several dozen U.S. Air Force Project Liberty aircraft to support ISR operations. L-3 Integrated Systems is the system integrator for the Liberty program, which includes ViaSat ArcLight COTM terminals and secure network services. The MC-12 Liberty is a small, twin-turboprop plane, based on the Beechcraft King Air 350ER.
The ArcLight Ku-band mobile broadband system is designed to provide high-speed, beyond line-of-sight (BLOS) communications, configured in this application for data rates up to 1 Mbps off the aircraft to support ISR activities. The system is based on the successful ArcLight mobile satellite communication system, which has approximately 1500 terminals delivered worldwide. The ViaSat system is also providing broadband BLOS ISR and Command and Control (C2) communication links for several other U.S. military organizations.
Market for Space-Based Internet Service Heats Up for ViaSat
It appears that the competition to provide satellite-based Internet service is heating up for ViaSat, the Carlsbad, CA-based defense contractor, at least judging from an account today by Susanna Kim in the New York Times.
As I reported earlier this year, ViaSat has placed a billion-dollar bet on creating space-based Internet service as a new commercial business. In 2008, the company announced it had decided to order its own $450 million communications satellite, ViaSat-1, from Palo Alto, CA-based Space Systems/Loral. ViaSat put the other piece together last October, with the $568-million acquisition of WildBlue, the Denver, CO-based Internet service provider.
The scale of the gamble is substantial. Before commissioning ViaSat-1, the Carlsbad company was generating almost $500 million in annual revenue, and specialized in satellite-based communications equipment used primarily by military customers. Its product line includes data modems that fit in the noses of jet fighters and mobile ground stations used by military ground forces to communicate.
Mark Dankberg
In our interview, ViaSat CEO Mark Dankberg told me he felt the company had a comfortable lead when they made the decision in 2007 to order a satellite optimized for Internet service with an extremely high data rate of more than 100 gigabits per second. ViaSat plans to launch ViaSat-1 next year. But ViaSat now faces a challenge from Germantown, MD-based Hughes Network Systems, although the Times is non-specific about ViaSat’s lead, saying both companies plan to launch broadband satellites “in the next couple of years.” (Hughes also chose to order its satellite from Space System/Loral, a subsidiary of Loral Space & Communications, which must have been somewhat of a surprise at ViaSat.)
As the Times notes, other Internet service providers also are moving to
accelerate development of high-speed broadband services they offer through cable and telecommunications networks.
So how does ViaSat view the intensifying competition?
In an e-mail sent to the company first thing this morning, I observed that ViaSat undoubtedly expected some competition eventually. But is all this happening sooner than expected, I wondered? And how does ViaSat keep the high ground, so to speak?
Citing information that ViaSat has previously provided to the investment and technical communities, CEO Dankberg writes in response:
” Obviously we’ve been aware of the Hughes satellite since it was announced. We believe it is about 1½-years behind ours, and that’s within the window that we anticipated.
“We believe that there is a significant competitive advantage to having the most cost-effective broadband capability at each point in time, and that a 1½-year advantage is important.
“We also expect that it will be an ongoing competition, and that longer term, the ability to sustain a broadband economic advantage will be very important. We are comfortable competing in that environment. That would imply the ability to make meaningful improvements to ViaSat-1 type satellites for the foreseeable future.”
ViaSat spokesman Bruce Rowe adds: “Before we announced our satellite, no one was talking about 100-gigabit-per-second satellites. We put a lot of effort into the design of our satellite—far more than most satellite customers do prior to contracting with a manufacturer. Many elements of the design have been submitted for patent protection…ViaSat-1 also is just the first step, and we believe we can continue to design even higher capacity satellites, to build on our first-to-market advantage.”
Author: Bruce V. Bigelow is the editor of Xconomy San Diego.