WISPAmerica 2019 Show Daily Day 1

1 8 WISPA merica 2019 I MARCH 19 - 21, 2019 www.bekabusinessmedia.com DAY 1 Viasat, Facebook Collaborate to Expand Internet Access in Rural Mexico V iasat and Facebook are now working together to make the internet accessible to more people in rural areas around the world. The two companies recently announced a collaborative partnership to accelerate the deploy- ment of affordable, high-speed, high-quality internet to communities in rural Mexico. Together, they are targeting areas that currently lack reli- able internet or have no connectivity at all. The collaboration will help accelerate the deployment of Viasat’s market-leading satellite- enabled Community Wi-Fi hotspot service, an innovative, proven approach to bringing high- speed, affordable Wi-Fi directly to consumer’s devices, where internet service was previously unavailable or ineffective. The Viasat service requires minimal local infrastructure, is highly-sustainable and rapidly scalable in emerging markets where large gaps exist among demand, affordability and avail- ability of internet services, said the company. As part of this collaboration, Viasat will place high-speed satellite Wi-Fi hotspots – delivered as an affordable pre-paid service – across thousands of rural locations. Facebook is investing in the roll-out and is working with Viasat to help iden- tify optimal deployment locations within Viasat’s current and planned satellite coverage. “Facebook is committed to working with industry partners around the world to help bring more people online to a faster internet,” said Dan Rabinovitsj, vice president of Face- book Connectivity. “Viasat’s rapidly growing Community Wi-Fi hotspot service, already available to over one million people in rural Mexico, is an example of a model that can help overcome the global connectivity chal- lenges of accessibility and affordability, partic- ularly in hard to reach rural areas.” The collaboration will initially focus on Mexico, bringing internet connectivity to remote regions of the country, with an opportunity to expand globally. “Enabling the next four billion internet users to come online is one of the grand challenges of our time – and participating in that is also one of the most exciting and rewarding opportunities of the mobile internet era,” said Mark Dankberg, chairman and CEO, Viasat. “Rural communi- ties, especially in emerging markets, are often the hardest to serve economically, yet are a vivid example of how Viasat’s innovative space communication systems can bring broadband communication services to the places that need it most, at the lowest bandwidth costs.” Viasat is seeing rapid growth in its Commu- nity Wi-Fi service in Mexico. In less than one year since launch, Viasat has already brought the internet within reach to more than one million Mexican citizens – delivering up to 100 Mbps speeds at affordable prices. The Viasat Community Wi-Fi service leverages the high-capacity satellite, ViaSat-2. The company is also building a global constellation of three next- generation ultra-high-capacity satellites, known as the ViaSat-3 class of satellites, to bring affordable high-speed, high-quality internet connectivity to the hardest to reach places on earth. m Visit Viasat at WISPAMERICA booth #319. ViaSat-2 satellite rendering