Beyond speed
Viasat suggests connectivity experience is a more valuable metric than speed and says part of maintaining consistency and reliability is having flexible capacity. Rob Hodgetts reports.
Beyond speed
Viasat suggests connectivity experience is a more valuable metric than speed and says part of maintaining consistency and reliability is having flexible capacity. Rob Hodgetts reports.
“Long term, to maintain that consistency and reliability, you need to have that flexible capacity.”
To become a ski instructor in France you first have to pass a speed test. This is a timed run through giant slalom gates. Only the quickest survive. Other national systems argue an aptitude for teaching is just as important as technical ability and outright speed.
Viasat says the same about business aviation connectivity.
“There’s a lot of confusion around how people are positioning and talking about connectivity,” says Claudio D’Amico, vice president of strategic market engagement, Business Aviation at Viasat.
He cites a fictitious flight from New York to the UK on which you test the speed of your connection. The numbers look impressive. Later in the flight, you try to connect to an application but the signal drops or the connection is poor. “You walk away from that thinking it wasn’t a good experience,” he says. “But people are making decisions based on the speed test that took place without any context.”
For Viasat, the goal is to create a “consistent experience” which can be quantified.
To this end it has developed a singular in-flight quality of experience (iQE) score based on a number of network metrics using AI and advanced analytics. Its work is supported by a 2025 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sloan School of Management study into bizav customer desires which called for a shift from singular metrics, such as speed, to a broader range of experience-based parameters such as latency, jitter, packet loss and bandwidth. The findings were that passengers value consistency in applications such as video conferencing and streaming more than peak speeds.
“This gives us a lot more insight in terms of, what are the parameters? What are the things that impact connectivity? And how do you translate those things into enhanced support,” says D’Amico. “That’s something we think we can help the industry evolve.”
The demand for bandwidth, enabling more users to operate more high-speed applications simultaneously, has led Viasat to focus on an increase in overall satellite network capacity.
Viasat already owned the ViaSat-1 and ViaSat-2 GEO Ka-band satellites, which gave it strong coverage, particularly over North America. Following the acquisition of Inmarsat in May 2023 it also took on the Global Xpress GEO Ka-band network. The company is further boosting its capacity with the upcoming entry into service of the second and third satellites of its next-generation ViaSat-3 GEO constellation. One will sit over the Americas and one over Asia. Each satellite will provide up to 1 terabit per second (1Tbps) of throughput alongside the original ViaSat-3 unit which covers Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
A feature of these next-generation high-throughput satellites is the ability to “focus capacity where demand is”, says D’Amico. That means the spot beams can be digitally steered to areas of high demand at peak times such as Teterboro, US or Farnborough, UK to enhance performance.
“Long term, to maintain that consistency and that reliability, you need to have that flexible capacity,” adds D’Amico.
But while the ViaSat-3 network is set to throw a high-level umbrella over the globe, new entrants to the market are intent on undercutting the GEO players, both in terms of price and orbit. D’Amico acknowledges there are new competitors, which means Viasat must remain focused on its objectives to stay ahead of the demand curve.
“New entrants typically enter the market in any industry by commercial incentives in the price,” he says. “As a result we have improved service plans to address those customers looking for a more affordable value proposition. What won’t change is our focus on offering differentiated white-glove support to users.”
It helps that Starlink is struggling for regulatory approval in a swathe of countries, including key regions such as India, China and many Asian countries. Viasat has spent years forging partnerships and achieving regulatory approval, and the ViaSat-3 Asia coverage could prove a significant selling point.
“A key differentiator for us is that access to sovereign markets,” says D’Amico.
“We have jets flying in and out of China and through India every day and they need connectivity. We already have regulatory approval. What we’re doing with ViaSat-3 F3 is adding capacity.”
With global coverage enhanced, Viasat’s partnership with Canadian provider Telesat should plug the LEO “gap” in its offering and address the increasing demand for low-latency applications, suggests D’Amico.
Telesat’s Lightspeed constellation, set to enter service in early 2028, will give Viasat access to its LEO constellation being built for aviation, maritime, enterprise and defence markets.
“So now you can have this flexible capacity over areas with a lot of demand, with regulatory approval,” says D’Amico. “And then when you bolt in the LEO component that brings the latency improvement. That’s a very exciting future for us and for our customers.”
When Viasat acquired Inmarsat, it inherited the legacy JetConneX connectivity brand alongside its own Viasat Ka service. To unify the offering and provide a platform for the future it has developed Jet XP, which will ultimately provide multi-orbit capacity and route traffic between the GEO and LEO networks to maximise performance without the user knowing.
A key “differentiator” for that premium service, which incorporates iQE, is the customer support, says D’Amico.
“We have a pretty reliable, consistent solution, but we’re in the space business,” he adds. “We have an aircraft flying at 500 miles per hour connected to a satellite connected to a ground station. Stuff happens, right? And when it does happen, you want to make sure you have someone there to support. And it’s not a robot. When you call a number on a website, it is a person, available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
Assembling the satellite payload for the ViaSat-3 F2 rocket. Photo: Viasat
Assembling the satellite payload for the ViaSat-3 F2 rocket. Photo: Viasat
The Atlas V 551 rocket launched ViaSat-3 F2 in 2025. Photo: United Launch Alliance
D’Amico cites the example of one large corporation flying predominantly in the northeast US which came to Viasat after having been sold a low-latency dream by another provider. The overall performance had not met expectations, so Viasat was asked to explore options. The customer eventually commissioned a new installation on the company’s network. On a subsequent flight, the CEO was on board but there was an issue with the connectivity. After the flight, the support team stepped in and solved the problem efficiently. The feedback was that although the downtime in the service had been an inconvenience, the way the company dealt with it had shown the switch was the right call, according to D’Amico.
“It was a good testament that some of the things we’re doing are resonating well with customers,” he adds.
“The majority of the operators in North America are corporations, especially for the super mid-sized, large cabin jets. And if it’s a corporation operating a jet, it’s a tool. They need to be connected. They need to have support. We’re going to continue to grow and deliver that capability.”
Looking ahead, D’Amico envisions a business aviation connectivity landscape which operates as seamlessly as users would expect on the ground, irrespective of region.
“Where we’re moving towards is ubiquitous connectivity. Things just work. They are seamless,” he says. “No matter where you are, doing whatever you want to do, it’s just going to be an extension of what you’re doing on the ground. That’s the future we’re looking at in five years,” he says.
Claudio D’Amico is vice president of strategic market engagement, Business Aviation at Viasat
