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High-Capacity Satellite System and ViaSat-1

High-Capacity Satellite System and ViaSat-1

“ViaSat-1 brings unprecedented bandwidth to space, at unprecedented airtime prices. It will enable ViaSat to expand on its consumer and government business segments, while also providing the opportunity to generate revenue from new applications and services, even markets that have traditionally not been the territory of satellite providers.” - Frost & Sullivan

Applications:
Residential, enterprise, mobile, and portable broadband

Technologies:
High-capacity Ka-band satellite system, next-generation SurfBeam® 2 ground system

Transforming Satellite Broadband

The demand for broadband by satellite is indisputable, as is the worldwide growth in bandwidth demand among broadband customers. Total global bandwidth consumption is doubling every two to three years.

January 16, 2012 marked the official launch of a new era in satellite broadband IP services as ViaSat-1, the highest capacity satellite in the world, started providing commercial services over North America. The new high-capacity ka-band system is transforming the economics and quality of service that satellite broadband can provide, moving satellite into a much more competitive position in the broadband service marketplace.

ViaSat High Capacity Satellite System Can Deliver A Range of Broadband Services
In addition to the new residential Internet services, such as Exede® Intenet, the system is designed to significantly outperform previous satellite systems for commercial and government services. Customers are able to choose from a new family of terminals for enterprise, mobile, and portable applications.

Already on board to use ViaSat-1 capacity are Xplornet, offering consumer Internet access in Canada, the American Red Cross for disaster relief communications, and JetBlue Airways, which plans to begin offering in-flight Ka-band broadband on its domestic U.S. fleet in 2013.
 
Integrated Satellite and Ground System Combination
The all Ka-band system combines the ViaSat-1 satellite and SurfBeam® 2 ground infrastructure. With 134 Gbps total throughput capacity, the new satellite system can serve the accelerating growth in demand for multimedia bandwidth for the next decade with these attributes: 
  • Continually improving bandwidth economics
  • Economically deliver Internet multimedia
  • More – and cheaper – bits in space
  • 100 times the capacity of Ku-band
  • 10 times the throughput of any previous Ka-band satellite
  • In-orbit costs per Gbyte only a fraction of even the newest satellites in orbit
  • Enabling service that is 8x faster than traditional satellite internet service, making it a better broadband choice than some terrestrial alternatives, including DSL at the edge of service areas (faster than average DSL speed according to a recent FCC Broadband study), mobile 3G wireless for fixed home use, and some cable systems
  • ViaSat-1 to offer 12 Mbps download service packages to approximately 1 million subscribers

ViaSat-1

Current satellite systems aren’t designed for the high bandwidth applications that people want, such as video, photo sharing, VoIP, and peer-to-peer networking. The solution is to increase the capacity and speed of the satellite. Improving satellite service is not just about faster speeds, but about increasing the bandwidth capacity available to each customer on the network to reduce network contention.

The transformational broadband services provided by ViaSat-1 will be available to 70% of the U.S. population, including the most populated areas of Alaska and Hawaii. Combined with enhanced 5 Mbps service offered in areas within the footprint of ViaSat’s other satellite assets, a new generation of high-speed satellite IP will be available across all of the United States.

 

Watch a demo of a browsing session using Exede Internet service on ViaSat-1.

Expanding Our Role as a Technology Supplier
We are expanding our role in the Ka-band satellite market, where we are already the leading technology supplier. Over the past few years we’ve assembled an exceptional group of technologies that make this innovation possible:

We view our next-generation Ka-band technology as the first in a series of innovations that can keep satellite broadband in an attractive position to serve the millions of homes which are difficult or expensive to reach by wireline networks. To enable ISPs and satellite service providers to expand their network reach and compete more effectively, we offer this system of low-cost, high-volume bandwidth and ground system technology.

©2013 ViaSat, Inc.