ViaSat Antenna Systems has entered a public-private partnership (PPP) agreement with the European Space Agency (ESA) to develop various components of the ViaSat-3 satellite communications system.
Called Project AIDAN, the €68m PPP will initially receive €31.2m in funding from ESA and its three member states, namely Switzerland, the Netherlands and Romania, in addition to ViaSat and some other European companies.
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The programme will primarily focus on developing two major components of the ViaSat-3 satellite ground segment, including fixed and mobile user terminal such as a fully electronic phased array for applications in residential broadband, in-flight Wi-Fi and connected cars.
A variety of ground segment equipment and gateways for the ViaSat-3 network, which will feature the satellite access node (SAN) subsystems for a Cloud-based ground network infrastructure, will also be developed under the programme.
ViaSat chairman and CEO Mark Dankberg said: “ESA aims to foster space innovation and promote a strong space economy.
“As a global company with a growing presence in Europe, we are proud to partner and tap into the space interests of ESA, the Member States and European industry.
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By GlobalData“Our new PPP with ESA will develop and bring-to-market new satellite-based broadband technologies to ensure European citizens have access to affordable, high-quality internet services.”
The ViaSat-3 system is an ultra-high capacity satellite platform that features three ViaSat-3 class satellites with ground network infrastructure.
Each of the three ViaSat-3 satellites will be designed to offer more than 1tbps of network capacity, which is comparable to the total capacity of all the existing commercial satellites in space.
The system is also expected to give consumers greater choice in their internet service provider (ISP) by allowing broadband speeds of more than 100mbps to the home.
