Viasat: Breaking the Mold

SOURCE: Image created with artificial intelligence.

My experience with the satellite industry, prior to becoming president of the Mobile Satellite Users Association, was as a remote observer. The overriding impression I had was that launching satellite constellations inevitably required multi-billion dollar upfront investments based on (presumably) inflated revenue projections, inevitably followed by bankruptcy and, ultimately, with a bit of good fortune, long-term success.

In a commentary in SpaceNews five years ago, J. Armand Musey, president and founder of Summit Ridge Group, described the bankruptcy proposition I experienced only remotely. A notable common thread was the rapid advance in satellite performance and a corresponding decline in the cost of hardware and swiftly eroding service rates.

Musey paints a picture where only the nimble can survive and thrive. Viasat was one of those companies.

Viasat now stands in the spotlight after high profile multi-billion dollar acquisitions of two of those prior bankruptcy victims - Globalstar by Amazon Leo and Iridium by Rocket Lab - as if poised to be plucked itself - prized for its spectrum rights and its diversified portfolio.

The company was founded 40 years ago in 1986 by Mark Dankberg, Mark Miller, and Steve Hart and became a public company in 1996. Viasat dodged many a bullet along the way; pushed solutions enabling higher speed processing and data transmission; and made several strategic acquisitions along the path to a cleverly diversified portfolio.

Mark Dankberg details the Viasat saga in the recent Via Satellite 40 Years issue. In that commentary, Dankberg notes at least three transitions (there were probably more) that threatened the company's future:

• Fall 2001: "In 2001 we won a satellite broadband trifecta – building networking equipment for gateways and airplanes for the first commercial broadband in-flight connectivity (IFC) networks for Boeing, one of the first Ka-band enterprise networks for Astrolink (look it up!), and the complete consumer Ka-band user and gateway terminals for WildBlue. A perfect storm of 9/11, the Joint Strike Fighter (F-35) award (then the largest defense program ever), and DirectTV's ill-fated deal to sell itself to EchoStar combined to kill or substantially delay all three projects within weeks of each other."

• 2008: "We thought we could do 100Gbps through a single satellite. It was a bet-the-company moment - again - that we could be a satellite operator and service provider. And, again, our timing couldn't have been much worse. We began a half billion-dollar capital project in 2008 - just as the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression made raising capital virtually impossible."

• Mid-2010's: "Interestingly, in the mid-2010s Viasat was targeted by a short-selling hedge fund touring the 'theme' that satellite broadband was an obsolete technology and that mobile LTE would end the digital divide. That thesis hasn't aged well. But our stock did take a hit for over a year, requiring more patience and determination - until ViaSat-2 went into service."

Viasat has faced other threats including a cyber attack attributed to the Russian Federation in February 2022 at the start of the war with Ukraine and a Chinese-linked attack in 2025 which did not impact users. 

In his comments in the recent Via Satellite issue Dankberg concludes: "We’ve encountered more tests of our staying power, and made more big investments on beam forming, spectrum, and new (to the satellite industry) business models." While noting the influx of capital and the increasing importance of defense business, Dankberg opts not to mention the elephant in the room: Starlink. 

It's not necessary. It's no secret that Starlink has transformed both the industry and Viasat. The pressure is now on to deliver multi-orbit solutions with clever management platforms such as Viasat's own NexusWave - an MSUA Innovation Award-winning solution.

Starlink has transformed the industry, but a blog post from Valour Consultancy describes how Starlink has been absorbed by a robust value-added reseller community where managed services continue to prevail including those enabled by Viasat.

This was perhaps never clearer than at last week's SMM Hamburg maritime conference. Starlink transformed the maritime connectivity industry with high speed LEO connections, but service providers have coped by integrating Starlink into their own solutions for applications. Writes Valour: "Shipowners evaluate installation, integration, cybersecurity, technical support, application performance, service level agreements and the operational complexity of managing hundreds of vessels across multiple trading regions." In other words, bandwidth is only one consideration.

Companies like Viasat continue to thrive with partners including Marlink, Speedcast, Navarino, IEC Telecom, and a host of other players. Starlink itself has more than 200 reseller partners - all adding value to what Starlink has to offer.

Perhaps the best place to look for a view of the future of the satellite category from a bruised and battered but triumphant survivor is the latest Q1 earnings call. Says Dankberg of the company's latest innovations: "On the near-term operational and strategic initiative front, we entered fiscal year 2027 focused on three priorities: selecting and competing effectively in attractive growth markets, leveraging new technology to reduce our effective airtime costs by using greater geographic coverage flexibility to drive more resilient, efficient, and effective satellite usage, and continuing to integrate AI and machine learning in multi-orbit network optimization. We're seeing both near-term and longer-term benefit from those three initiatives."

That about sums things up from the ultimate industry survivor that broke the bankruptcy mold. Viasat is no doubt preparing for the next test.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Roger Lanctot is president of the Mobile Satellite Users Association and CEO and Founder of StrategiaNow Consulting. Roger draws on 30+ years’ experience in the technology industry as an analyst, journalist and consultant. Roger is a graduate of Dartmouth College. His 190,000 followers on LinkedIn reflects the influence of his insights and perspectives on automotive and transportation technology, policy, and strategy.