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Viasat sells satellite internet service and the satellites and equipment behind it, connecting homes, planes, ships, and militaries that regular networks can't reach.
Viasat is a satellite communications company. It launches satellites into space and sells the internet access those satellites provide to people and machines in places where cable and cell towers don't go — rural homes, airplanes, ships at sea, and government and military units. It also builds and sells the equipment, networks, and cybersecurity tools that make those connections work. So the customer is paying for a link to the internet, and Viasat owns the whole chain: the satellite, the ground station, the modem, and the service.
The company has grown by riding a simple reality: satellites cover what wires can't. In-flight Wi-Fi is a big piece — airlines pay Viasat to keep passengers online, and it also powers faster, fancier Wi-Fi for business jets and heads of state. Ships at sea, oil rigs, and remote towns buy the same kind of connection. Government and military customers are important too, buying secure communications, tactical radios, and encryption gear. Viasat competes with satellite giants like SES and Intelsat, and increasingly with Starlink, which is launching thousands of cheap low-orbit satellites that offer fast internet in places Viasat used to own. The giant bet is Viasat-3, a family of very large, very expensive satellites meant to deliver huge amounts of bandwidth. The first one, launched in 2023, had a problem with its main antenna that cut its capacity and forced an insurance payout of roughly $420 million. The next satellites in the series represent the company's future growth, and delays or cost overruns there hurt. Viasat also bought UK-based Inmarsat in 2023 for about $7 billion, a big debt-funded deal that roughly doubled its size in aviation and maritime connectivity but left it carrying a heavy debt load — a real risk if cash flow disappoints.
In 1986, three former Linkabit employees started Viasat in a spare bedroom with almost no outside money. Customers showed up right away, bringing in cash that let them raise a small seed round a few months later. Their first product, a signal-to-noise ratio device for the U.S. Army, put the young company on the map as a serious defense contractor.
A decade later, Viasat sold shares to the public on Nasdaq and raised about $20 million, with the three founders keeping 28 percent of the company. The business was earning real revenue, close to $50 million that year, and now it had public money to grow.
Viasat bought U.S. Monolithics, a designer of high-frequency broadband circuitry. That expertise became the seed of Viasat's Tempe, Arizona campus and an early move toward building satellite payloads itself rather than just buying parts.
Next came a much bigger leap: Viasat agreed to buy WildBlue Communications, a satellite internet provider, for about $568 million. For the first time, Viasat would own the service, not just supply the equipment—staking its future on a satellite it was about to launch.
That bet paid off when Viasat launched ViaSat-1, then the highest-capacity broadband satellite in the world. Nobody else had stepped up to build high-capacity Ka-band capacity, so Viasat did it itself. The launch turned a terminal maker into a global satellite operator.
With a huge acquisition on the table—Inmarsat—cofounder Mark Dankberg returned as chairman and CEO, and Rick Baldridge became vice chairman to focus on closing and integrating the deal. Shareholders overwhelmingly backed the purchase, setting up the company's biggest transformation yet.
In 2023, Viasat closed its purchase of British satellite operator Inmarsat, paying about $550 million in cash and issuing millions of shares. The deal made Viasat a global satellite giant, adding L-band mobile and safety services used around the world.
Looking further out, Viasat and Space42 agreed in 2026 to create Equatys, an open shared platform for mobile satellite services, with Canada's CaStar joining as the first partner. The bet is that coordinating L-band spectrum globally will matter as Viasat takes on Starlink and AST SpaceMobile in direct-to-device connectivity.
That debt is the central tension. Viasat has spent years building toward a payoff from Viasat-3, while Starlink's low-orbit fleet keeps pressuring prices in the markets it serves. Still, it has a rare, hard-to-copy asset: a mix of spectrum licenses, satellites, and long-term contracts with airlines and governments that competitors can't buy overnight. It isn't a company that wins by being cheap; it wins when customers need coverage that only a dedicated satellite operator can deliver.
Saved answer · last researched 21 Oct 2026