[Satellite TODAY 03-25-13] In September 2010, at the Comsys’ VSAT conference in London, ViaSat CEO Mark Dankberg spoke optimistically about placing an order for the ViaSat-2 satellite and having it launched by 2014. However, as we head out of SATELLITE 2013, it seems this panorama has become very uncertain. It is not clearer when an order for ViaSat-2 will be placed, but it appears as though 2016 might be a more realistic timeframe to see such a satellite placed into orbit, which would make it at least two years behind the original schedule.

    At the “Satellite Broadband Comes of Age: The Ka-Band Equation” panel at SATELLITE 2013, Dankberg hinted at a big order to come for a new satellite, but declined to put an exact timeframe on when the company may procure it. He told the conference that ViaSat hopes to order the satellite “soon” and that the company has been working with a couple of satellite manufacturers regarding the configuration of this satellite.

    Dankberg hinted that any new satellite could be a transformative one in the industry, but that having such ambitious plans for ViaSat-2 was one of the main reasons why they had been a delay in placing an order.

    “We think the next satellite will be a pretty dramatic improvement [on ViaSat-1]. We hope to order it soon. We want to improve the economics dramatically. Sometimes, things take a long time in the satellite industry. On the consumer side, things have gone as amazingly as anticipated. We are getting half of our customers from terrestrial. We were expecting 20 percent. If we buy a satellite like ViaSat-1, we will not get the economics that we want. The consumer broadband business is an economic engine for what we are doing,” he said..