‘Unexpected event’ hampers ViaSat-3 Americas performance
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‘Unexpected event’ hampers ViaSat-3 Americas performance

Mark Dankberg - Viasat.png

Viasat has said that an “unexpected event” occurred during reflector deployment that may materially impact the performance of tis ViaSat-3 Americas satellite.

Viasat and its reflector provider are conducting reviews of the development and deployment of the affected reflector to determine its impact and potential remedial measures.

"We're disappointed by the recent developments," said Mark Dankberg, Chairman and CEO of Viasat.

"We're working closely with the reflector's manufacturer to try to resolve the issue. We sincerely appreciate their focused efforts and commitment."

Contingency plans are currently being refined to minimise the economic impact to the company, Viasat said.

Potential options include redeploying satellites from Viasat’s extensive fleet to optimise global coverage and reallocating a subsequent ViaSat-3 class satellite to provide additional Americas bandwidth.

The initial service priority for ViaSat-3 Americas has been to facilitate growth in the company’s North American fixed broadband business.

Viasat maintains that there is no disruption to customers from this event and no impact to coverage or capacity of the respective Viasat and Inmarsat constellations currently in services.

Following the Inmarsat acquisition, Viasat has 12 Ka-band satellites in space, excluding ViaSat-3, with eight additional Ka-band satellites under construction.

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