Thread regarding ViaSat Inc. layoffs

If it doesn't work it's strike 3, and that doesn't include the first one.

1000%. It’s not even the bandwidth or the tech it’s being able to meet the launch deadlines. I didn’t consider another delay possible at this point

Might be more value in recycling and collecting on scrap. No information related on launch, completion, and they are trending towards missing the windows that have already been pushed back numerous times, all while Elon and Starlink announcements make Viasat’s “industry changing” bandwidth with VS3 look irrelevant before they can even get into orbit.

It would be interesting to see the 'should we still launch them' analysis. What's taking so long?

For someone a bit ignorant. When they claim 10 dummy V3 satellites. The V3 birds are each capable of 1Tbps. How many 1Tbps LEOs would they need to offer major cities non stop coverage? I'd assume they would need thousands or they could target just the hot latitudes that cross the most major cities (new york, los angeles) etc. rather then every latitude on the globe for the high bandwidth product. I could see that being an issue for us

I think it comes down to does one believe Starship dumping 60Tbps capacity per launch at >25 launches per year provide sufficient capacity to smooth over the nature of hotspots. It also comes down to what role does Viasat's low capacity 1Tbps VS3 birds have in a world where StarLink puts up 60Tbps per launch while Kuiper is also progressing up that hill. I've written earlier about MD fighting the last war where capacity is tightly limited and complex optimization efforts must be employed, but he and acolytes and the sacred cows are not prepared for the world where capacity is a plentiful commodity.

Thanks for elucidating that detail and yes it makes sense that Space X's stranded assets eat up our higher margin businesses. If I recall the whole point of moving away from high churn residential was to secure higher margin lower churn maritime and aviation.

I guess the other question I have is for terrestrial dense areas wouldn't Starlink have peak usage problems. Some one Reddit in denser cities already are experiencing throttling with nothing like an SLA.

For the gov or commercial customer would they favor something like an SLA and not being throttled in denser areas? I thought Viasat gov had some moat w/ hardware encryption. That sector doesn't move very quickly and switching off legacy equipment might make sense from an outside perspective but it involves re-training, trust in the vendor, and relationship building that the general public I don't think appreciates.

Would residential ever be saturated theoretically in denser areas making the true bandwidth capacity of Starlink seem great at first but worse as adoption grows? I think this is the real reason President Musk got elected so he can influence the FCC to stamp all LEO launches so that capacity = dump LEOs in space.

I have a hard time believing VSAT is going bankrupt because we can cut most VSAT3 R&D / Tempe assembly. At todays price they could just cruise. I do believe they will continue cuts to satisfy shareholders.

I know we've ben fed that party line from MD and his acolytes, however StarLink's success at penetrating our maritime and aviation markets suggests that's irrelevant to the consumer. Yes it's true mathematically LEO birds spend more time over water than land, but MD and co have misjudged that as a moat that will keep low capacity GEO fever dreams alive. What has instead happened is maritime and aviation customers benefit from the low marginal cost of that purported "stranded" bandwidth. Viewed another way, the "stranding" of that bandwidth is not the customer's problem, it's the company's problem and one that StarLink solves by selling cheaper plans than we have. This has resulted in them growing penetration in our maritime and aviation markets. In the end the customer doesn't care, the bits and terminals are cheap and they want to buy them.

LEOs orbit about 11 times a day.

Quick question. Are the beams from V3 starlink fixed as in pointing straight down are can you actually move them? I'm assuming lots of bandwidth over the Pacific Ocean isn't exactly the most usable bandwidth. So measuring on this metric alone isn't in the best, but i might be wrong. Would love to be corrected

Let's look at that another way. In just one of those launches, Musk can deploy 10Tbps capacity

I think your numbers are low. From Starlink themselves: "Each Starlink V3 launch on Starship is planned to add 60 Tbps of capacity to the Starlink network"

Why would anybody invest in Viasat when they could be in Nvidia or Broadcom?

Jim Cramer today on Elon Musk: “Once you get a CEO with that kind of political influence, it’s easy for the faithful to imagine unlimited possibilities."

RIP