[Satellite TODAY Insider 08-31-11] ViaSat has completed its addition of Yonder high-speed Internet coverage over Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Columbia, Ecuador and surrounding areas in cooperation with its regional provider Andesat, ViaSat announced Aug. 30.

   Andesat, which leases bandwidth on the Intelsat IS-14 satellite and operates teleport facilities at ViaSat’s Santiago regional gateway, said the Yonder service was successfully tested in the area and is now operational for maritime and aviation customers. To support the service, Andesat will deliver data services to mobile service customers in the region.

   Andesat General Manager Pablo Rasore said that the combination of ViaSat airborne high-speed Internet equipment and Yonder data and voice service aims to provide business aircraft passengers with performance that is on-par with the latest home and office IP network applications and services.

   “Mobility is the name of the game now and, together with ViaSat and KVH, we will play an important role in delivering high-quality mobile broadband in a global network,” Rasore said in a statement.

   ViaSat operates the Yonder network with its partner KVH Industries. The service delivers average speeds of 1 to 2 Megabits-per-second of data to the aircraft, and up to 512 kilobits-per-second of data from the aircraft. KVH offers its mini-VSAT service over the same network to commercial shipping customers, private yacht owners and the U.S. Coast Guard. A fleet of approximately 150 business aircraft and 200 military and special mission aircraft connect through the Yonder mobile broadband service network.

“We have completed coverage over South America with this latest addition. All Yonder aviation and maritime customers will immediately benefit from the expanded coverage and the addition keeps us on target to complete the full deployment of our network by the end of 2012,” ViaSat Mobile Broadband Director Don Buchman said in a statement.