New Highly-Integrated Space/Ground System From ViaSat and Boeing Designed to Accelerate Spread of High-Speed Broadband Worldwide

March 16, 2015

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Making it easier for operators and service providers to deliver affordable, high-speed broadband services worldwide, ViaSat Inc. (NASDAQ: VSAT) and The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA) are teaming together to offer the ViaSat Flexible Broadband System. This system brings a new level of flexibility, high-capacity, and affordability to service providers, enabling them to start with a smaller investment, focus capacity to match the bandwidth demand in their markets, and scale their infrastructure as expansion is needed.

ViaSat creates new ways to access advanced network applications with satellite and other wireless networking systems that enable fast, secure, and efficient communications to any location. The company provides networking products and services for enterprise and consumer IP applications; is a key supplier of network-centric military communications and encryption technologies to the U.S. government; and is the primary technology partner for gateway and customer premises equipment for consumer and mobile satellite broadband services. Other products and services include communication system design, satellite antenna systems, integrated circuits, and network acceleration. The company also owns WildBlue, the premier Ka-band satellite broadband service.

The Flexible Broadband System is designed to provide the industry leading satellite bandwidth economics in a more affordable package, tailored to regional operators. The system is based on the most advanced ViaSat High-Capacity Satellite System, the same flexible networking system developed for the ViaSat-2 satellite scheduled to launch next year. ViaSat and Boeing are also adapting a ViaSat-2 based payload to the Boeing 702SP (small platform) satellite bus to provide affordable and flexible satellite broadband anywhere in the world.   

"The advantage of using geostationary satellites to spread broadband availability worldwide is the ability to focus capacity to where it is needed, rather than blanket the entire globe with a thin layer of capacity regardless of population density or demand," said Mark Dankberg, ViaSat chairman and CEO. "Our new system will add another dimension to that capability, with a networking system that can quickly shift or add capacity to markets where demand begins to grow or change."

"The blending of technologies - a high throughput payload with the economic efficiency of the Boeing all-electric propulsion 702SP satellite - provides the lowest cost per bit of capacity," said Mark Spiwak, president of Boeing Satellite Systems International, Inc. "The joint product offering between Boeing and ViaSat helps address a market need for regional operators."

Services based on ViaSat networking technology can effectively compete with terrestrial service alternatives. The new Flexible Broadband Network uses a reinvented system architecture to deliver cost-savings, more flexible capacity allocation, and continuous technology upgrades, including:

• Flexible design for broad coverage and the ability to shift or add bandwidth capacity anywhere within the satellite coverage area.
• Compact, next-generation RF Satellite Access Nodes, with an overall footprint size similar to cellular wireless towers, replacing large teleport/gateway installations increasing fault tolerance, reducing hardware, and cutting costs.
• Dynamic system architecture for auto shifting traffic among gateways, increasing operational performance and virtually eliminating network down time.
• ViaSat Satellite Terminal Reference Design that makes core terminal components available for third-party terminal manufacturing.
• Fast rollout of fixed, nomadic, and mobile services using ViaSat Network Services, a cloud-based Platform as a Service, for constant state-of-the-art network performance.

Source : ViaSat, Inc.