...Industry Innovators Awards on Eutelsat Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL) and ViaSat Inc. (NASDAQ: VSAT) in recognition of the development and launch of their High Throughput Satellites, KA-SAT and ViaSat-1. Both companies are transforming the landscape for satellite broadband and are delivering a broadband experience matching terrestrial services through KA-SAT and ViaSat-1.
The SSPI Awards recognize outstanding new contributions to the field of satellite communications by private and public sector organizations. Honorees are chosen by a committee of industry experts for accomplishments ranging across a broad spectrum of advanced satellite technology and business applications. The Awards will be presented on March 12 during the Satellite 2012 conference in Washington DC.
In a joint statement, Michel de Rosen, CEO of Eutelsat, and Mark Dankberg, CEO of ViaSat, said, “It is an honour for our efforts to be rewarded by the SSPI and encourages both our organizations to pursue our vision to deliver high quality broadband services to the millions of consumers lacking high speed broadband. The innovative services offered today on KA-SAT and ViaSat-1 are just the beginning of this transformation of satellite.”
Launched in December 2010 and in service since May 2011, Eutelsat’s KA-SAT satellite marked the long-awaited arrival of faster Internet for users in Europe and the Mediterranean Basin beyond range of terrestrial networks. The satellite delivers throughput of more than 70 Gbps with high frequency reuse achieved via 82 spotbeams. KA-SAT powers the Tooway™ broadband service, the first to implement ViaSat’s high-capacity technology, to provide speeds of up to 10 Mbps download and 4 Mbps upload,.
October 2011 saw the launch of ViaSat-1, the world’s highest capacity satellite, offering 140 Gbps of total throughput over the USA and Canada. In January 2012, ViaSat launched its ViaSat-1 based Exede(sm) high-speed Internet service, offering speeds up to 12 Mbps downstream and up to 3 Mbps upstream. In addition to residential service, the new ViaSat high-capacity satellite system is designed to simultaneously deliver a wide range of enterprise and mobile broadband services. Professional customers can choose from a family of terminals for enterprise, on-the-move, and portable applications. ViaSat is also working with JetBlue to create the industry's best in-flight broadband for commercial aviation, with a planned service launch by the end of 2012.