Viasat’s 2024 Digital Inclusion Accomplishments

At Viasat, we serve some of the world’s hardest to reach locations. We also keep highly mobile people, businesses, and governments connected on the go. Additionally, we provide connectivity for mission-critical situations where security and resilience are of the utmost importance.

Viasat connects approximately 20,000 aircraft across commercial and business aviation — including aircraft operations and safety services — to keep more than 50 million passengers connected monthly across more than 300,000 flights. In FY24, Viasat added or expanded service to Korean Airlines, Etihad Airways, Royal Jordanian Airlines, Icelandair, the Lufthansa Group, Porter Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Qantas, and more.

 

Currently, we provide passenger connectivity on over 60 airlines and enable connected aircraft services such as flight operations and safety for more than 200 airlines worldwide. Other key achievements include:

• Viasat and Deutsche Telekom entered a new, long-term agreement cementing the companies’ commitment to providing in-flight connectivity (IFC) solutions to airline partners across the European Aviation Network (EAN), providing customers with substantial cost savings and supporting sustainability initiatives and carbon reduction.
• Volatus Aerospace selected Viasat Velaris — our connectivity service for uncrewed aerial vehicles — to expand its customer offerings in key sectors, including inspection, compliance, equipment distribution, public safety, and drone cargo delivery.
• Our Iris program — an initiative led by the European Space Agency (ESA) and Viasat that uses our satellite technology to help modernize air traffic management (ATM) by enabling airspace optimization, easing congestion, and reducing delays and emissions for airlines — received further approvals and began commercial operations with launch customer easyJet.
• Viasat SwiftBroadband services were successfully activated on our I-6 F1 satellite over the Asia Pacific Region, increasing network capacity to support aviation customers in the region.
• We began shipping the small and light Viasat Velaris satcom terminals, enabling a new generation of electrically-powered pilotless aircraft to perform powerline and utility inspections, oil and gas surveys, and humanitarian aid deliveries.

Approximately 80% of international trade in goods is carried by sea, and nearly 2 million seafarers trust us to deliver a communications lifeline when they need it most. Building on this longstanding heritage of helping improve maritime safety, Inmarsat Maritime, a Viasat business, won an International Maritime Rescue Foundation (IMRF) award for Innovation and Technology in Maritime Search and Rescue. Inmarsat Maritime also continued to expand operations to help maritime businesses stay connected with what matters most and improve operational excellence by launching its new Fleet Reach coastal

 

LTE service for maritime connectivity. This new service provides uninterrupted high-speed broadband to merchant, offshore, energy, and fishing customers. Other key achievements include:

• Viasat FleetBroadband services were successfully activated on our I-6 F1 satellite over the Asia Pacific Region, increasing network capacity to support maritime customers in the region.
• Over 200 terminals were installed with global shipping giant Maersk.
• We reached an agreement with long-standing customer Atlantic Offshore to implement Fleet LTE across the Norwegian offshore service provider’s multifunctional fleet, helping ensure vessels maintain continuous access to high-speed, low-latency connectivity in the North Sea during their offshore supply, seismic support, and oil recovery duties.
• Our Future of Maritime Safety Report 2023 was published, helping maritime businesses proactively tackle the root causes of repeated and well-known safety issues in order to reduce incidence rates.
• Inmarsat Maritime celebrated 25 years as a private company protecting lives at sea using its Inmarsat C solution to meet the Global Maritime Distress and Safety Systems (GMDSS) regulations.

Viasat enables enterprises worldwide to deliver safer, more efficient, and more sustainable operations through the power of satellite. By connecting a million land-based IoT assets and other satellite devices, along with hundreds of critical offshore sites, we enable individual users, global production, and supply chains to deliver mission-critical connectivity at the remote edge where data is most valuable. Key achievements this year include:

• Viasat and Skylo Technologies announced the launch of the world’s first global direct-to-device (D2D) network serving businesses, consumers, and governments around the world to help connect smartphones and IoT devices.
• Partnered with Ranchbot to enable water conservation and distribution for U.S.- based cattle ranchers through the geographical expansion of ELEVATE — an online market promoting satellite communications and IoT.
• Enabled ELEVATE solution partner RESOLVE to connect AI-powered camera traps to reduce human and animal conflict in and around Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, U.S.
• Significant expansion in Middle East and Brazil, connecting crews and operations in offshore energy sites.
• Continued connectivity services to support partners such as Insight Terra in monitoring and alerting systems for mine tailings in dam facilities.

We continue to find ways of making it easier for people who live outside the cable or fiber zone to stay connected. Our Viasat Unleashed service plans, launched last year, provide customers one simplified plan that offers fast, reliable internet service up to 150 Mbps (in select markets), combined with the data levels they need to stay connected. Other highlights include:

• Participating in the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), helping eligible customers make monthly savings on their home internet costs — Viasat is committed to continuing to provide discounted service to ACP customers in the near-term FCC funding for the program ends in May 2024;
• Working with the Connect America Fund Phase II (CAF II) to bring discounted satellite internet and phone service to millions across America who wouldn’t have internet otherwise, with discounted pricing available through the FCC’s Lifeline funding.
• Bringing affordable, high-speed internet to people living on tribal lands with our Tribal Connect program — while simultaneously creating installation jobs for local community members. We also offered significant savings on plans via the Affordable Connectivity Program, and donated back to tribal funds for each successful subscription.

Trusted by governments around the world for their most critical connections in times of crisis, our InCommand solution was named the winner of the Government Mobile Innovation category in the Mobile Satellite User Association’s (MSUA) 2024.

 

Satellite Mobile Innovation Awards in recognition of innovations in mobile connectivity on land, at sea, in the air, and in space.

 

We continued to help enable secure, resilient operations around the world this past year, including:

• Completing our first ship installation for the U.S. Navy Military Sealift Command (MSC) to help ensure MSC ships have secure, resilient, worldwide communications capabilities, as well as a reliable global, on-demand backup network;
• Integrating secure, flexible broadband Ku- and Ka-band airborne technology onto the Airbus C295 MSA aircraft for the Irish Air Corps (IAC), a division of the Irish Defense Forces focused on the Military Air Defense of Irish airspace and supporting United Nations peacekeeping operations;
• Supporting the U.S. Air Force’s (USAF) Air Mobility Command (AMC) during a major military exercise, Mobility Guardian 2023 (MG23), involving 3,000 personnel and 70 aircraft from the U.S. and Allied Forces.

We continued our work as both a partner and practitioner to help foster digital inclusion in communities around the world. In the United States, Viasat partnered with the Columbia Urban League, a nonprofit organization that promotes financial stability and racial inclusion in the district of Columbia, South Carolina, and the Fairfield County School District on a new program, Plugged In.

 

The Plugged In program is dedicated to bringing connectivity to internet deserts, providing those in underserved communities with internet access and bridging this digital divide. Viasat employees from around the United States, including a large group from our Black Professional Alliance employee resource group (ERG) in Duluth, Georgia, applied their skills and passion for community impact in numerous ways, including developing and leading training programs on how to maximize satellite internet use and how to setup a new laptop in communities where previously there had been no experience of this.

 

In Mexico, our Viasat ambassador program works with local representatives — mainly women — to be the local knowledge and expertise in areas connected by Viasat technology. Currently serving 78 communities throughout Mexico, the program encourages gender equality, helps to create a fair and just society, and addresses systemic inequalities — including digital inclusion.

 

Through two programs in Brazil — Wi-Fi Brasil and Electronic Government Program - Citizens Assistance Service (GESAC) — Viasat and Brazilian telecom company Telebras have partnered to provide connectivity to more than 26,000 sites across 3,100+ municipalities, including more than:

Viasat is also committed to connecting more than 56,000 sites across Brazil. Other key accomplishments to help bridge the digital divide include:

• Viasat participated in the ITU World Radio Communication Conference 2023 (WRC-23) in Dubai, UAE, an international gathering of all nations that decides rules for how finite spectrum and orbital resources are shared around the world to facilitate critical policy goals like digital inclusion.
• Working with CFE Telecommunications and Internet for All (CFE-TEIT), Viasat has connected 1,550 public locations (including 944 schools) with public access to free Wi-Fi in areas where it wouldn’t have been economically feasible to connect otherwise — giving an estimated 1.85 million people access to free Wi-Fi.
• With a 20+ year relationship, Viasat worked with Télécoms Sans Frontières this past year, supporting them to help restore connectivity and coordinate response and relief efforts for the earthquakes in Turkey and Morocco, flooding in Libya, and Hurricane Otis in Mexico, as well as providing ongoing emergency response support for those displaced and affected by war.
• Viasat provided hardware and service, delivering essential connectivity that helped with recovery and restoration efforts for the wildfire event in Maui, Hawaii, USA.
• In remote regions of Colombia, Viasat installed free internet services and solar power to schools, with several using the connectivity to access online government education programs. The number of students per site ranges between 15 and 20, with one school serving 100 students. For the first time, these schools benefited from internet access.

Learn more about Viasat’s commitment to Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) in our recent 2024 Impact report ESG | Viasat