With the ViaSat-3 Ka-band constellation set to begin deployment next year, Viasat is mounting a “very interactive” display this week at NBAA-BACE 2022. It is providing direct connectivity to its Ka-band network from the convention floor to demonstrate what its broadband service already delivers, said James Person, director of business development and strategy.
“We've heard from a number of people that say they want to see if you can actually do videoconferencing on the Viasat Ka-band network, so we've brought the videoconference capability back to our booth,” Person said. “You can experience high-definition video conferencing over the Viasat Ka-band network right here.”
The Carlsbad, California satellite-network operator promotes its typical speed as greater than 25 Mbps, “but we've had reports from operators of over a hundred megabits per second down to the aircraft,” Person said. Once ViaSat-3 is in service, Mbps rates to and off the aircraft will increase further. Handling more than a terabit per second—1,000 gigabits per second, or four times ViaSat-2’s capacity—ViaSat-3 will be the largest-capacity satellites in the world, according to Viasat.
The three satellites are set to be launched at six-month intervals, with the first launch, originally scheduled for this past summer, now delayed until early next year. Once fully deployed, ViaSat-3 will eliminate the current service’s global gaps in non-polar regions and “provide an overlay in the high-capacity region,” Person said. The first-launched satellite will cover the Americas from Hawaii to the mid-Atlantic; the second, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa; and the third, Asia-Pacific.
Current Viasat customers will be able to access the new constellation without additional equipment with new software that will automatically download to their Viasat terminal. “And they won’t pay a dime more for it,” said Person. “So whether people have a line-fit installation or an aftermarket Viasat installation, they'll be able to take full advantage of these speed increases.”
Reaffirming that strategy, in August Airshare selected Viasat’s Ka-band system for its expanding fractional-ownership fleet of Bombardier Challenger 350s and forthcoming Challenger 3500 deliveries. Viasat also recently announced an STC for the Ka-band system installation on Dassault Falcon 7X and 8X airframes.
Meanwhile, Viasat has revamped its service plans, starting with Viasat Select, which the company announced at NBAA-BACE last year. “It’s a truly unlimited plan,” said Person. “The speeds are uncapped and the amount of data is unlimited. We’re operating down to super-midsize aircraft and offering a regional plan for under $10,000 per month.”
Viasat also offers an entry-level basic service plan, aimed at owners who’ve recently moved up from light jets to a super-midsize jet. “They're not used to what the capability of a high-speed satellite system is. So for them, we have a regional 15-gigabyte plan for $2,795 a month,” Person said. “It's a great entry-level plan for people who aren't sure they're going to need a lot of data, but once they get onboard, they realize they really do.”
Viasat has also started bringing the subject of sustainability—and the challenge of space debris—into the satcom realm.
“With three ViaSat-3 satellites, we cover the globe, while some of our competitors are putting up tens of thousands of low-orbit satellites that last about one-third as long, operating very close to each other,” Person noted. “If there’s an anomaly, there's real concern about the impact of a collision not only on their own constellation but on other satellites.”
Meanwhile, at Viasat’s NBAA-BACE booth, eyes are on the video screens fed from its satellite via an antenna on the Orange County Convention Center’s roof.
“It’s a greater challenge [than onboard connectivity],” Person said of the hookup. “We have to work through all the Florida weather and through the clouds. When you're traveling at 45,000 feet, you typically have a clean line of sight. And even if you’re moving at 550 miles per hour, your angle to the satellite in geostationary orbit is not changing much.”