ViaSat Inc. (NASDAQ: VSAT) has received an $18 million contract award
from Skylogic, the broadband subsidiary of Eutelsat Communications
(Eutelsat Communications-Euronext Paris: ETL) for broadband gateway
earth stations for the previously announced high-capacity KA-SAT Ka-band
satellite system. ViaSat is under contract to deliver and install eight
broadband earth stations throughout Europe, as well as provide
maintenance and support services. The earth
station gateways are designed to connect subscribers of Eutelsat
Tooway™ satellite broadband service to the Internet. The ViaSat ground
infrastructure will be available for the KA-SAT launch scheduled for
mid-2010.
"This award solidifies our leadership position in Ka-band earth stations
for broadband satellite communications. To date, we have delivered over
75 Ka-band earth stations to commercial and military customers
worldwide,” said John Zlogar, VP Antenna Systems at ViaSat.
The Tooway
service operated by Eutelsat broadband subsidiary Skylogic is already
supplying consumer broadband service using the Eutelsat HOT BIRD™ 6 and
Eurobird™ 3 satellites and the ViaSat SurfBeam® networking system.
KA-SAT is a high capacity Ka-band
spot beam satellite with planned coverage over Europe, the Middle
East, and Northern Africa. With a capacity estimated at 70 Gbps, KA-SAT
is expected to be (at launch) the highest capacity satellite in the
world. KA-SAT is a European counterpart to ViaSat-1, a Ka-band satellite
designed to deliver 100 Gbps of broadband capacity to the North American
market, with a planned launch in 2011.
About ViaSat
ViaSat produces innovative satellite and other digital communication
products that enable fast, secure, and efficient communications to any
location. The company provides networking products and managed network
services for enterprise 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. The company has five subsidiaries: US Monolithics,
Efficient Channel Coding, Enerdyne Technologies, Intelligent Compression
Technologies and JAST. These companies design and produce complementary
products such as monolithic microwave integrated circuits, DVB-S2
satellite communication components, video data link systems, data
acceleration and compression products, and mobile satellite antenna
systems. ViaSat has locations in Carlsbad, CA, and Duluth, GA, along
with its Comsat Laboratories division in Germantown, MD. Additional
field offices are located in Boston, MA, Baltimore, MD, Washington DC,
Australia, China, India, Italy, and Spain.
Forward-Looking Statements
Portions of this release, particularly statements about the performance
and deliveries of ViaSat products and technology, may contain
forward-looking statements regarding future events and are subject to
risks and uncertainties. ViaSat wishes to caution you that there are
some factors that could cause actual results to differ materially,
including but not limited to: the ability to realize the anticipated
benefits of the ViaSat-1 satellite; pricing pressures and actions taken
by competitors; satellite failures or degradations in satellite
performance; difficulties in obtaining regulatory approvals; and
unexpected expenses related to the project described herein. In
addition, please refer to the risk factors contained in ViaSat’s SEC
filings available at www.sec.gov,
including without limitation, ViaSat’s annual reports on Form 10-K and
ViaSat’s quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. Readers are cautioned not to
place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which speak only
as of the date on which they are made. ViaSat undertakes no obligation
to update or revise any forward-looking statements for any reason.
SurfBeam is a registered trademark of ViaSat.
Tooway, HOTBIRD and Eurobird are trademarks of Eutelsat.
Comsat Labs and Comsat Laboratories are tradenames of ViaSat, Inc.
Neither Comsat Labs nor Comsat Laboratories is affiliated with COMSAT
Corporation. "Comsat” is a registered trademark of COMSAT Corporation.
All additional products are trademarks of their respective owners.