Viasat CEO Cites Challenges Readying Global Satellite Broadband
Rolling out a global satellite-based broadband service is "a radical challenge," from the "tremendous amount of fiber" across the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific for the ground network to the numerous partnerships needed, Viasat CEO Rick Baldridge told us. The inaugural launch next year of its Viasat-3 three-satellite high-capacity constellation will let the satellite operator ramp up the number of addressable markets exponentially, Baldridge said. Viasat-4 is being designed now for launch in 2025 or 2026 with five times the capacity of Viasat-3, he said.
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Baldridge said hurdles before the Viasat-3 service goes online include finding ways to collect payment from all the various markets. The company launched service in Mexico, Brazil and parts of Eastern Europe using leased satellite capacity "just to get this started and the playbook created," he said.
Data demands for in-flight connectivity could take a couple of years to return to pre-pandemic levels, Baldridge said. He said airlines are having a spike in summer bookings, though it's unclear whether business travel will rebound in the fall. He said "frivolous" business travel isn't going to return, "but people aren't going to stop traveling." The company announced early this year that Delta signed an in-flight connectivity deal with Viasat for more than 300 narrow-body aircraft.
Baldridge said a sizable amount of satellite bandwidth is coming online, but "not a lot of good bandwidth." He said Viasat's $222 million Rignet acquisition (see 2012210006) is part of its strategy to move into new markets or drill deeper into existing ones, such as adding more data services to oil and gas facilities. "It's really expanding the market, not competing with [other satellite operators] for market share," he said.
Viasat’s low earth orbit satellite plans are an augmentation of its geostationary network, “not a replacement,” Baldridge said. He said the company’s top goal is finding an existing LEO operator with which it can partner, leasing capacity. He said Viasat’s authorization pending at the FCC for 288 non-geostationary orbit satellites (see 2005270010) is its backup plan if it can’t find that partner. “We had to get in line, right?” he said. With bankruptcy likely for many LEO operators, Viasat is “very thoughtful about where we partner,” he said.
The business case for large LEO networks “doesn’t even pencil out,” especially when the incremental value of each additional one decreases beyond a couple of thousand satellites, Baldridge said. Viasat, which has been raising red flags at the FCC about SpaceX's pending license modification to allow a lower orbit for more than 2,800 proposed satellites (see 2004200003), doesn't consider SpaceX a major competitor in satellite-provided broadband, Baldridge said. With numerous nations wanting their own LEO broadband networks, “I don't think they are going to let one person run away and dominate … in a way that blocks everybody else,” he said.
Satellite operators coming together and agreeing on common orbital debris standards "makes complete sense," Baldridge said. "You are going to see much more industry outcry that we have all got to cooperate and communicate ... so we all have fair access."