Carlsbad satellite Internet provider Viasat expects to complete its pending buyout of rival Inmarsat this month — bulking up the combined companies’ competitive position amid stiff competition in the satellite broadband market.
Dankberg said the satellite has reached its orbital slot some 22,000 miles above Earth. It will undergo further testing before beginning to beam down bandwidth by mid-summer. Space has been a fast-growing market — led by Elon Musk’s SpaceX’s and its Starlink fleet of low-altitude Internet satellites. SpaceX said on social media earlier this month that it now has 1.5 million customers worldwide — up from just 250,000 about 15 months ago.
But increased competition from Starlink and limited bandwidth on its existing satellites has resulted in a loss of residential customers for Viasat. The company didn’t disclose how many subscribers have left. Its satellite services revenue, which includes residential and in-flight connectivity, fell 3 percent in the fourth quarter. But it grew 2 percent for the full 2023 fiscal year to $1.2 billion.