March 10, 2014 — RESTON, Va.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–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.”
