ViaSat has received a $21m contract from Barrett Xplore, Canada’s rural broadband provider, for broadband gateway baseband infrastructure and satellite broadband terminals to be used with the ViaSat-1 Ka-band satellite system.
Under the contract, ViaSat will install satellite broadband equipment for four ViaSat-1 gateways in Canada, deliver an initial order of SurfBeam 2 subscriber terminals and provide network services and technical support from the WildBlue operations centre. The network system is expected to be available in mid-2011.
ViaSat said that it is developing SurfBeam 2 Ka-band network to support broadband Ka-band satellites such as ViaSat-1 in North America, KA-SAT in Europe and YahSat 1B in the Middle East. The network complements the satellite capabilities and is designed to offer higher speeds (both upstream and downstream) to the subscriber.
John Maduri, CEO of BXI, said: This agreement with ViaSat, together with our recent announcement with Loral to acquire capacity on the ViaSat-1 high-throughput satellite is integral to our strategy to expand Barrett Xplore to reach rural Canadians. The ViaSat-1 launch date in early 2011 enables us to offer advanced services very early in this decade.
