ViaSat, of Carlsbad, Calf., completed the addition of Yonder high-speed Internet coverage for aviation over Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Columbia, Ecuador, and surrounding areas. ViaSat is adding this coverage in cooperation with regional provider Andesat S. A. Andesat leases bandwidth on the Intelsat IS-14 satellite and also operates teleport facilities in Santiago where ViaSat has installed a regional gateway. Andesat will also provide data services to mobile service customers in the region.
"We have completed coverage over South America with this latest addition," said Don Buchman, ViaSat director of Mobile Broadband. "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."
The Yonder network, which ViaSat operates with partner KVH Industries, delivers a typical user experience of 1 to 2 Mbps data to the aircraft, and up to 512 kbps data from the aircraft. A growing fleet of over 150 business aircraft, plus 200 military and special mission aircraft, connect through the Yonder mobile broadband service network. KVH offers its comparable mini-VSAT service over the same network to commercial shipping customers, private yacht owners, and the U.S. Coast Guard.