OTTAWA– Telesat has announced that the powerful Ka-band satellite, ViaSat-1, has finally begun commercial service. The announcement though has been overshadowed somewhat by Viasat’s recently filed U.S. federal lawsuit against the builder of its new $400 million high-capacity Internet satellite for breach of confidentially agreements and patent infringement.
ViaSat-1 is being billed as the first “media-enabled” satellite, designed to provide more than 100 gigabits per second throughput, and to serve the accelerating growth in bandwidth demand for multimedia Internet access over the next decade. Canadian broadband provider Xplornet is expanding its service with this bird. Telesat owns the Canadian Ka-band payload on ViaSat-1, a satellite which has endured a series of technical issues which delayed its launch by several months until last October 19.
The lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in San Diego, according to a report, alleges that Space Systems Loral of Palo Alto misappropriated ViaSat’s designs for the new satellite architecture and claimed them as Loral’s own. The Carlsbad, California-based company charges that the company then leveraged the information to win new satellite construction projects, including a contract with ViaSat’s chief competitor, HughesNet. ViaSat has not disclosed how much it is seeking in damages, but did state in the lawsuit that the alleged misappropriation of its technology will provide Space Systems Loral with more than $1 billion in "ill-gotten gains." The potential impact of the lawsuit is still uncertain.
The ViaSat-1 satellite utilizes new architecture to greatly boost bandwidth, with more capacity than all of the 40 existing commercial data satellites orbiting North America combined. The extra capacity enables ViaSat to offer its exede high-speed Internet service with speeds up to 12 Mbps downstream and up to 3 Mbps upstream beginning at $50 per month.
ViaSat-1 operates at 115.1 degrees West longitude using nine Ka-band spot beams over Canada and 63 over the United States. Telesat owns the nine Canadian beams on ViaSat-1 and has entered into a fifteen year service agreement with Xplornet Communications Inc. to make use of this capacity.
“With the capabilities of ViaSat-1, Internet subscribers in rural Canada are now able to have a superior online experience with true broadband performance,” said Dan Goldberg, Telesat’s President and CEO.
“The start of service for ViaSat-1 is an important milestone for Telesat that adds to our record of bringing advanced communications to Canada. We are pleased to be supporting our longstanding customer Xplornet as they deliver the very latest in affordable, reliable and high quality broadband services to rural Canadians.”
