LightSquared today announced a multi-year agreement with ViaSat, Inc. (NASDAQ: VSAT). Together, the companies will introduce ViaSat L-band Managed Service, an exciting new mobile satellite service that will combine the power of LightSquared’s state-of-the-art SkyTerra 1 L-band satellite, with ViaSat secure, all-IP, true packet-switched satellite technology.
The SkyTerra 1 L-band satellite, among the most powerful commercial satellites ever built, provides ubiquitous coverage throughout North America. The L-band satellite enables transmissions to small, low-cost devices by using a 22-meter reflector-based antenna — the largest satellite reflector to be put into service on a commercial satellite. ViaSat L-band Managed Service is the first to use this advanced satellite technology to bring higher data throughputs to smaller devices and provide an order of magnitude capacity improvement over comparable L-band legacy systems. The new managed service is a reliable, always-on, low latency service that offers broadcast and multicast data transport and embedded voice over a highly secure network.
The flexible, open ViaSat L-band Managed Service enables development of applications serving the communications needs of consumer, enterprise, and government segments. A unique device ecosystem will initially include M2M, vehicular, and aviation devices designed to support a range of applications from communications for emergency first responders, to monitoring oil and gas flow through pipelines, to mobile workforce management, and tracking and monitoring of high-valued assets whether static or mobile.
“Our strategic cooperation with ViaSat provides LightSquared with an expanded foundation for near- and long-term business opportunities,” said Doug Smith, chairman and CEO of LightSquared. “This agreement gives new and current LightSquared partners access to a lineup of products and services with smaller form factors and will offer download speeds up to 10 times what they are able to achieve today.”
“The LightSquared SkyTerra 1 L-band satellite has brought the same kind of bold innovation to personal mobile communications that we’ve brought to satellite broadband with our high-capacity ViaSat-1 Ka-band satellite,” said Phil Berry, VP and general manager of MSS at ViaSat. “Together with LightSquared, we are bringing to market products and services that address the unmet needs of a variety of mobile communicators.”
About LightSquared Satellite Services:
LightSquared delivers mobile satellite voice, push-to-talk, data and GPS tracking services throughout North America. Today, hundreds of thousands of devices operate using the LightSquared SkyTerra 1 space-based network, providing reliable, ubiquitous coverage primarily for public safety, security, fleet management, asset tracking and energy exploration. LightSquared provides hosted services through a network of satellite Service Providers and offers satellite capacity leasing whereby Private Network Carriers can build and deploy their own end-to-end satellite communications solutions to operate over the LightSquared satellite network. LightSquared satellite services are available on a wholesale basis throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico. For more information about LightSquared, please go to www.lightsquared.com, www.facebook.com/LightSquared and www.twitter.com/LightSquared.
About ViaSat:
ViaSat delivers fast, secure communications, Internet, and network access to virtually any location for consumers, governments, enterprise, and the military. The company offers fixed and mobile satellite network services including ExedeSM by ViaSat, which features ViaSat-1, the world’s highest capacity satellite; satellite broadband networking systems; and network-centric military communication systems and cyber security products for the U.S. and allied governments. ViaSat also offers communication system design and a number of complementary products and technologies. Based in Carlsbad, California, ViaSat has established a number of worldwide locations for customer service, network operations, and technology development.
