Viasat’s Community Wi-Fi Service Selected as a Finalist in the Best World Changing Idea North America and Developing World Technology Categories; Also Receives Honorable Mention in the General Excellence Category
CARLSBAD, Calif., April 28, 2020 -- Viasat Inc. (NASDAQ: VSAT), a global communications company, announced today it has been recognized by Fast Company in their 2020 World Changing Ideas Awards. These awards seek to honor the businesses, policies, projects and concepts that are actively engaged and deeply committed to helping address global issues facing humanity. The 2020 World Changing Ideas Awards will be highlighted in the May/June print issue, which hits newsstands May 5.
Fast Company selected Viasat’s Community Wi-Fi service as a finalist in the Best World Changing Idea North America and Developing World Technology categories as well as named the service as an honorable mention in the General Excellence category as part of the publication’s 2020 World Changing Ideas Awards.
Viasat’s satellite-enabled Community Wi-Fi hotspot service brings high-speed, affordable Wi-Fi directly to consumer’s mobile devices in unserved and underserved towns, communities and cities. The highly-scalable service, which falls under Viasat’s Community Internet product line, requires minimal local infrastructure, is economically sustainable and rapidly deployable in places where terrestrial fixed and wireless services struggle to perform, or may never reach.
Viasat was the first company to launch a satellite-enabled Community Wi-Fi hotspot service, bringing connectivity initially to people in Mexico and Brazil, with plans to expand into other countries globally. Today the Viasat Community Wi-Fi service leverages the world’s highest capacity satellite, ViaSat-2, in Mexico and a partner satellite enabled by Viasat’s ground network infrastructure in Brazil. Viasat is currently building a global constellation of three ultra-high-bandwidth satellites, known as the ViaSat-3 class of satellites – which is expected to deliver several orders of magnitude more bandwidth across the globe, including to those in hard-to-reach places with the greatest need, while providing quality services at affordable prices.
Now in its fourth year, the World Changing Ideas Awards showcase 26 winners, more than 200 finalists, and more than 500 honorable mentions. A panel of eminent judges selected winners and finalists from a pool of more than 3,000 entries across transportation, education, food, politics, technology and more. The 2020 awards feature entries from across the globe, illustrating how some of the world’s most inventive entrepreneurs and companies are addressing global challenges.
Mark Dankberg, chairman and chief executive officer at Viasat said, “We’re honored to be recognized by Fast Company in their 2020 World Changing Ideas Awards. By using our advanced satellite broadband and space technologies we can change the world for the better, making broadband connectivity available, accessible and affordable for all. Our Community Wi-Fi system is both scalable and cost-effective, which can effectively provide the more than three billion unconnected in our world a broadband lifeline that can help enrich lives through better, more convenient access to online resources.”
“There seems no better time to recognize organizations that are using their ingenuity, resources, and, in some cases, their scale to tackle society’s biggest problems,” said Stephanie Mehta, editor-in-chief of Fast Company. “Our journalists, under the leadership of Senior Editor Morgan Clendaniel, have uncovered some of the smartest and most inspiring projects of the year.”
About the World Changing Ideas Awards
World Changing Ideas is one of Fast Company’s major annual awards programs and is focused on social good, seeking to elevate finished products and brave concepts that make the world better. A panel of judges from across sectors choose winners, finalists, and honorable mentions based on feasibility and the potential for impact. With a goal of awarding ingenuity and fostering innovation, Fast Company draws attention to ideas with great potential and helps them expand their reach to inspire more people to start working on solving the problems that affect us all.
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, or follow the Company on social media at: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter or YouTube.
Forward-Looking Statements
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 among others, statements that refer to the speed, performance, value, availability, coverage, capacity and reliability of Viasat’s satellite systems, and the planned expansion of the Community Wi-Fi service globally. Factors that could cause actual results to differ include: risks associated with the construction, launch and operation of Viasat’s satellites, including the effect of any anomaly, operational failure or degradation in satellite performance; the ability to successfully implement Viasat’s business plan for broadband satellite services on Viasat’s anticipated timeline or at all, including with respect to the ViaSat-2 and ViaSat-3 satellite platforms; contractual problems; product defects; manufacturing issues or delays; regulatory issues; technologies not being developed according to anticipated schedules, or that do not perform according to expectations; Viasat’s ability to realize the anticipated benefits of the ViaSat-2 and ViaSat-3 satellite platforms; unexpected expenses or delays related to the satellite systems; and increased competition and other factors affecting the connectivity sector, 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.
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