The new offering will bring affordable Wifi directly to consumers’ devices in areas where traditionally internet connectivity was unavailable. Viasat says that the service can be installed with minimal investment in local infrastructure and will bridge the gap between demand, affordability and availability of internet services.
Commenting on the launch, Kevin Cohen, general manager of consumer broadband at Viasat Mexico and Central America, said: “By leveraging our ViaSat-2 satellite system’s low-cost capacity and higher speeds coupled with our Wifi service expertise, we can deliver a high-quality internet experience—at affordable end-user prices—to millions of unconnected people living in both developed and emerging markets. Our work in Mexico is just the first example of how we can scale and monetize our services and capacity globally—while giving people living in underserved and unserved markets new opportunities to join the digital community.”
Viasat has been carrying out Community Wifi trials since 2016 at over 500 sites in Northern Mexico using its existing satellites and Wifi technologies. To date these deployments serve hundreds of thousands of Mexican citizens but because of the increase in the ViaSat-2 satellite capacity and coverage, the company expects it to reach millions of people in unconnected towns across Mexico.
In addition, because of Viasat’s acquisition of managed Wifi provider, NetNearU, the company was able to leverage its expertise in having successfully managed 14 million hotspots and a managed hotspot network in nearly 30 countries, to affordably extend and manage satellite communications over Wifi hotspots to a growing number of subscribers, from emerging residential markets to enterprises and commercial aviation.
The Community Wifi service has been launched in partnership with Grupo Prosperist, a local telecommunications and technology service provider.
Back in February, Viasat deployed a 100Mbps home internet service across US. As well as fast speeds the new service offers unlimited data plans to its customers, giving them more freedom and access to more online service, without having to pay overage charges.
