Country for PR: United States
Contributor: PR Newswire New York
Wednesday, July 01 2020 - 08:00
AsiaNet
Viasat's Real-Time Earth Ground Station Now Open in Australia
MELBOURNE, Australia, July 1, 2020 /PRNewswire-AsiaNet/ --

- Viasat Partnered with the Centre for Appropriate Technology Ltd and 
Indigenous Business Australia on the Alice Springs Real-Time Earth Facility

- Real-Time Earth Network will Enable the Delivery of Valuable Earth 
Observation and Remote Sensing Data

Viasat Inc. ( https://www.viasat.com/ ) (NASDAQ: VSAT), a global communications 
company, proudly announced today the official launch of its Real-Time Earth 
(RTE) facility in Alice Springs, Australia. 

Viasat partnered with the Centre for Appropriate Technology Ltd ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2845824-1&h=1518751801&u=https%3A%2F%2Fcfat.org.au%2F&a=Centre+for+Appropriate+Technology+Ltd 
) (CfAT), an Aboriginal not-for-profit science and technology company based in 
Alice Springs, which built and owns the new facility through its wholly-owned 
commercial subsidiary CfAT Satellite Enterprises Pty Ltd, and Indigenous 
Business Australia (IBA), an Australian Commonwealth commercially-focused 
government authority, which helped finance the project and provides related 
commercial advice and support.

Viasat's RTE network ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2845824-1&h=4178978579&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.viasat.com%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2Fmedia%2Fdocuments%2Fviasat_real-time_earth_brochure.pdf&a=Viasat%27s+RTE+network 
) provides Ground-Station-as-a-Service (GSaaS) to the earth observation and 
remote sensing community. The service offers affordability and reduced latency 
through automation and geographic diversity on a pay-per-use basis. Viasat's 
RTE service will be able to support next-generation and legacy low earth orbit 
satellites using the S-, X-, and Ka-bands, which will enable operators to meet 
today's and tomorrow's data requirements.

"We are delighted to announce the Viasat RTE facility in Alice Springs is now 
open for business," said John Williams, vice president of Real-Time Earth at 
Viasat. "CfAT, IBA and the Alice Springs community-at-large were instrumental 
in executing this impressive RTE ground station. This new facility will enable 
the advancement of how critical data for environmental, shipping, oil and gas, 
government among other industries is delivered on-demand around the world."

Peter Renehan, CEO of CfAT Ltd, said, "It is a huge achievement for CfAT to 
have built this amazing Viasat RTE facility. Working with great support from 
our partners Viasat and IBA, we have demonstrated that CfAT can continue to 
contribute positively to technology and critical space advancements, which will 
benefit Indigenous people and communities in outback Australia, as well as the 
broader Australian economy. The project has already delivered important skills 
transfer to Aboriginal people. We were very proud of the local Aboriginal 
workers who developed new skills and successfully assembled the two 7.3m 
antennas. The local economy has also benefited, with $1 million spent during 
the construction phase on local businesses, including two wholly-owned 
Aboriginal companies. CfAT is also contracted by Viasat to provide on-site 
facilities management and on-going site maintenance. The future looks bright, 
and we are looking forward to building on our business relationships with 
Viasat and IBA to bring this new technology to Australia." 

Rajiv Viswanathan, CEO of IBA, said, "Built and owned by our Indigenous partner 
CfAT, this RTE facility is a nationally significant infrastructure development 
which will help to completely transform the geospatial analytics and earth 
observation industries in Australia. We are incredibly proud of CfAT's 
achievement. The successful construction of this facility shows the whole world 
that Aboriginal people can be at the forefront of new technology industries in 
Australia. CfAT is a successful Aboriginal corporation that has for many years 
been at the vanguard of technology innovation and application in remote 
Australia. Despite the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, CfAT and its 
subsidiary Ekistica successfully developed this facility with Viasat. CfAT now 
have an exceptional opportunity to grow its business in Australia as it looks 
to generate commercial returns for CfAT as well as flow-on benefits for 
end-users of geospatial data such as local Indigenous land and sea managers. We 
are proud to support CfAT in realizing their ambitions for growth in the space 
sector." 

Alice Springs, Australia Location
Viasat's RTE satellite ground station facility is located at CfAT's Heath Road 
site in Alice Springs, Australia. It consists of two Viasat full-motion antenna 
systems and associated infrastructure. The new ground station forms part of the 
Viasat RTE network and complements other Viasat RTE sites in North America, 
South America and Europe.

About CfAT Ltd
CfAT is an Aboriginal company, with 50% Aboriginal workforce, established in 
the 1980's, that operates across regional and remote Australia delivering 
infrastructure and technology solutions mostly to Aboriginal and Torres Strait 
Islander communities, providing service and infrastructure platforms that allow 
people to maintain their relationship with country.  The company's approach is 
driven by the view that the successful delivery of services and the 
technologies and infrastructure used to achieve them will be different to the 
way things are done in urban Australia.  This has shaped our success and led to 
the development of highly innovative new technologies. www.cfat.org.au

About IBA
IBA is a commercially focused Australian Government organisation. Economic 
independence for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples is at the heart 
of what we do. Our programs assist Indigenous Australians to buy their own 
homes, be successful in business, and invest in commercial ventures that 
provide strong financial returns. www.iba.gov.au/

About Viasat
Viasat is a global communications company that believes everyone and everything 
in the world can be connected. For more than 30 years, Viasat has helped shape 
how consumers, businesses, governments and militaries around the world 
communicate. Today, the Company is developing the ultimate global 
communications network to power high-quality, secure, affordable, fast 
connections to impact people's lives anywhere they are -- on the ground, in the 
air or at sea. To learn more about Viasat, visit: www.viasat.com, go to 
Viasat's Corporate Blog ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2845824-1&h=1610103963&u=https%3A%2F%2Fcorpblog.viasat.com%2F&a=Viasat%27s%C2%A0Corporate+Blog 
), or follow the Company on social media at: Facebook ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2845824-1&h=926378282&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FViaSat&a=Facebook 
), Instagram ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2845824-1&h=1635595655&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.instagram.com%2Fviasatinc%2F&a=Instagram 
), LinkedIn ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2845824-1&h=4254271376&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fcompany%2Fviasat&a=LinkedIn 
), Twitter ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2845824-1&h=2042640832&u=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FViaSatInc&a=Twitter 
) or YouTube ( 
https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=2845824-1&h=1204337352&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fuser%2FViaSatInc&a=YouTube 
).

Forward-Looking Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to the 
safe harbors created under the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities 
Exchange Act of 1934. Forward-looking statements include statements about the 
features and benefits of the RTE facility, and the facility's positive 
contribution to the local economy through contract opportunities, ongoing 
employment opportunities for Indigenous Australia, and growth of business; the 
new RTE facility's ability to complement existing Viasat RTE sites; Viasat's 
ability to enable earth observation and remote sensing data; and the ability to 
service and maintain the system. Readers are cautioned that actual results 
could differ materially and adversely from those expressed in any 
forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ 
include: contractual problems, product defects, regulatory issues, 
technologies  that do not perform according to expectations and other factors 
affecting the communications market generally. In addition, please refer to the 
risk factors contained in Viasat's SEC filings available at www.sec.gov, 
including Viasat's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports 
on Form 10-Q. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any 
forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date on which they are 
made. Viasat undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking 
statements for any reason.

Copyright (c) 2020 Viasat, Inc. All rights reserved. Viasat, the Viasat logo 
and the Viasat signal are registered trademarks of Viasat, Inc. All other 
product or company names mentioned are used for identification purposes only 
and may be trademarks of their respective owners.

SOURCE Viasat, Inc.

CONTACT:  Chris Phillips, Corporate Communications & Public Relations, +1 
760-476-2322, Christina.Phillips@viasat.com; June Harrison, Investor Relations, 
+1 760-476-2633, IR@viasat.com