A deal has been in the works for some time now and today Telesat announced that Viasat has signed a multi-year contract for Lightspeed low Earth orbit (LEO) services.
At its recent investors call Telesat unsually said it was in “advanced negotiations” with Viasat. Last fall during a Viasat investor call, Mark Dankberg, Viasat’s CEO was looking for LEO capacity.
In a news release Telesat said, “Viasat is well positioned as the largest broadband connectivity provider in the commercial aviation market, providing airlines with unprecedented scalability and flexibility to differentiate their onboard experience. The thousands of airplanes that have the Viasat GM-40 antenna installed today will be able to access the Telesat Lightspeed network when global services commence in late 2027. Viasat and its airline customers also will be able to install next-generation electronically steerable antennas (ESAs) to access the advanced Telesat Lightspeed constellation.”
They added, “Telesat Lightspeed enables enhanced inflight connectivity by delivering high-speed, low-latency broadband globally, as well as to hotspots such as large airport hubs, all backed by enterprise-grade Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for guaranteed performance. Airlines will be assured that passengers on every plane and every route around the world, including over the polar regions, will be capable of enjoying high quality connectivity gate-to-gate.”
“From inception, we designed Telesat Lightspeed with advanced capabilities to meet the demanding, secure, mission-critical requirements of enterprise and government users, with unprecedented flexibility in how our customers define, deliver, manage and monitor the quality of experience to their end users,” stated Dan Goldberg, President and CEO of Telesat.