May 30, 2018 Viasat preps big insurance claim for ViaSat-2 antenna anomaly
WASHINGTON — Viasat expects to file an insurance claim soon for an antenna glitch that reduced the performance of its newest satellite by around 15 percent, CEO Mark Dankberg said May 24.
The antenna malfunction on ViaSat-2, revealed in January some seven months after the satellite’s launch, specifically affects a set of antennas designed to target pockets of high-demand customers, he said. As a result, some areas are already experiencing bandwidth shortages, he said.
...
...
Modeling of the satellite’s performance has predicted how different antenna configurations affect the corresponding beams, he said. ViaSat-2 still has contiguous coverage of North America and nearby regions, he said, but with only 98 to 99 percent of its beams. The last 1 to 2 percent of beams Viasat may keep permanently shut off, he said.
...
...
After launching ViaSat-2 service late last year, Viasat is loading customers in its three main business areas of aviation, government and consumer broadband onto the satellite. Compared to ViaSat-1, which was roughly 90 percent consumer broadband, Dankberg said ViaSat-2’s largest customer set will likely be aviation, with inflight connectivity accounting for around half its capacity.
↧