Viasat launches its first large-scale satellite

Viasat launched the first of three broadband satellites. The Europe-focused node will start working after the summer. This new generation of devices targets the entire population of the world.

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After SpaceX, Amazon and Oneweb, the next party is entering the commercial broadband internet market from space. The US company Viasat launched its first satellite of the ViaSat 3 line on Monday. These aim to bring the global Internet to governments and large corporations, but also to the average consumer.

Unlike the other three companies, Viasat does not put thousands of nodes into orbit, but only three. One for North, Central and South America, one for Europe and Africa and one for Asia and Australia. The last will be online during 2024.

1 terabyte per second

Each satellite has a capacity of 1 terabit per second. So the total capacity would be 3000 Gbps if via Saturday 3 fully functional.

The unique thing about satellites is that they each have a very large reflector. that as a mirror From the broadband Internet, it broadcasts from hundreds of terrestrial stations.

Nothing is known yet about pricing, sales channels and any additional hardware required.

Work is already going on behind the scenes on ViaSat 4. No details are known about it yet.