ViaSat Sees Future in Aeronautical, Maritime Broadband Markets

摘要

Satellite broadband hardware and service provider ViaSat Inc. is pitching its future ViaSat-2 Ka-band satellite as just as much a mobile broadband asset for maritime and aeronautical use in the Atlantic as an addition to its existing U.S. consumer broadband business. The satellite's coverage area extends east to the border of Britain and includes much of the Caribbean to the south. Under construction by Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems of El Segundo, Calif., as part of a $358 million contract, ViaSat-2 is scheduled for launch in mid-2016. ViaSat-2 will have about double the capacity of the existing ViaSat-1, whose total throughput of about 140 gigabits per second already makes it the highest-throughput satellite in orbit, along with competitor Hughes Network Systems' Jupiter 1 satellite. Both were built by Space Systems Loral (SSL) of Palo Alto, Calif.