Satellite Delays Cost ViaSat, But Defense Business Still Solid

摘要

Satellite broadband equipment and services provider ViaSat said it is continuing to lose subscribers to its WildBlue commercial satellite broadband service because of delays in the launch of its Vi-aSat-1 satellite. The company is also incurring ground-segment costs for ViaSat-1 even though the satellite will not be in operation until December. Carlsbad, Calif.-based ViaSat said its business with the U.S. Defense Department, focused as it is on high-priority areas like facilitating broadband access, appears protected from spending cuts, especially since a large portion of the work is already under firm contract. In an Aug. 5 conference call with investors, ViaSat said that while its commercial broadband business has taken several blows related to the delays in the launch of ViaSat-1, results of testing on ViaSat's new consumer broadband terminal, SurfBeam 2, show it can deliver even higher throughput than forecast. ViaSat Chief Executive Mark Dankberg said ViaSat this fall will begin deploying SurfBeam 2 terminals in the western United States in a kind of broad-scale test drive to see just how much throughput it can offer WildBlue subscribers for no increase in monthly fee.