Telesat Secures Substantial Multi-year Contract with Viasat for Telesat Lightspeed Services
Telesat (Nasdaq and TSX: TSAT), one of the world’s largest and most innovative satellite operators, today announced that Viasat Inc. has signed a substantial multi-year contract for Telesat Lightspeed Low Earth Orbit (LEO) services. Under its multi-orbit strategy, Viasat plans to integrate Telesat Lightspeed into its services portfolio for aviation, maritime, enterprise and defense markets.
“From inception, we designed Telesat Lightspeed with advanced capabilities to meet the demanding, secure, mission-critical requirements of enterprise and government users, with unprecedented flexibility in how our customers define, deliver, manage and monitor the quality of experience to their end users,” stated Dan Goldberg, President and CEO of Telesat. “We are honored to be selected by Viasat – a global leader in satellite-delivered broadband solutions – as a LEO broadband connectivity provider, further validating the unique capabilities Telesat Lightspeed offers to enhance a service provider’s value proposition in the dynamic broadband connectivity market.”
Viasat is well positioned as the largest broadband connectivity provider in the commercial aviation market, providing airlines with unprecedented scalability and flexibility to differentiate their onboard experience. The thousands of airplanes that have the Viasat GM-40 antenna installed today will be able to access the Telesat Lightspeed network when global services commence in late 2027. Viasat and its airline customers also will be able to install next-generation electronically steerable antennas (ESAs) to access the advanced Telesat Lightspeed constellation.
Telesat Lightspeed enables enhanced inflight connectivity by delivering high-speed, low-latency broadband globally, as well as to hotspots such as large airport hubs, all backed by enterprise-grade Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for guaranteed performance. Airlines will be assured that passengers on every plane and every route around the world, including over the polar regions, will be capable of enjoying high quality connectivity gate-to-gate.
By designing to government cybersecurity standards and implementing a Zero-Trust Network Access architecture, Telesat Lightspeed will have the ability to provide secure and resilient communications for defense users. Built to telecom Carrier Ethernet standards for ease of integration and interoperability, Telesat Lightspeed supports the network automation goals of Viasat and other service providers.