Provision of broadband networking equipment for ten gateway systems using KA-SAT

ViaSat (NASDAQ:VSAT) has received a $50 million contract award from Skylogic, the broadband subsidiary of Eutelsat Communications (Eutelsat Communications-Euronext Paris: ETL) for on-ground baseband infrastructure for the previously announced high-capacity KA-SAT Ka-band satellite system. Under the contract, ViaSat will deliver and install broadband equipment for 10 KA-SAT gateways in Europe. The gateways will connect subscribers of Eutelsat Tooway™ satellite broadband service to the Internet. The ViaSat ground infrastructure will be available for the KA-SAT launch scheduled for the third quarter of 2010.

ViaSat’s next generation SurfBeam® Ka-band network is being architected expressly to support very high capacity satellites such as KA-SAT and ViaSat-1 in North America. These new space systems will deliver more speed and higher volumes of bandwidth at far lower costs than any existing broadband satellite network. The next generation SurfBeam network, which will be exclusively provided to Eutelsat for the KA-SAT coverage areas, exploits the capabilities of the satellite and is designed to deliver much higher speeds (both upstream and downstream) to the subscriber, significantly better support for bandwidth-intensive Internet media, and faster web browsing. ViaSat will be the exclusive provider of satellite broadband terminals for the new North American and European satellite systems.

“This is the first network infrastructure award resulting from our transformational broadband initiative and leverages ground system economies of scale because it can be used for both high-capacity satellites – KA-SAT and ViaSat-1,” said Mark Dankberg, chairman and CEO of ViaSat. “It is exciting to see us begin production and delivery of the network that will bring our shared vision of high-volume satellite broadband services to reality.”

“The ViaSat ground infrastructure and our KA-SAT satellite work hand-in-hand to supply the higher capacity, lower cost bandwidth that is required to successfully meet the requirements of the satellite consumer broadband market,” said Giuliano Berretta, chairman and CEO of Eutelsat.