MEXICO CITY, Jan. 23, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Viasat
Inc. (Nasdaq: VSAT), a global communications company, proudly
announced today the Viasat Community Wi-Fi hotspot service is
now available within walking distance to more than one million
Mexicans living and working in thousands of rural Mexican
communities. The Community Wi-Fi service is marketed locally in
Mexico under the Conectaless
brand.
Establishing successful local distribution and fulfillment
partnerships
In 2017, Viasat set up a commercial agreement
with Grupo Prosperist, a Mexican telecommunications and technology
service provider serving rural Mexico for nearly a decade. Through the
arrangement, Viasat and Grupo Prosperist have successfully deployed
the Community Wi-Fi service across Mexico, making affordable internet available
to many of country's most remote locations. Viasat and Grupo
Prosperist have continued to offer additional value-added services
beyond connectivity, most recently including a pay-by-the-minute
voice phone service and convenient online bill payment
services.
The Community Wi-Fi service uses a centralized Wi-Fi hotspot to
connect to a Viasat satellite to deliver internet service to remote
communities that previously had little or no internet connectivity.
The service can be deployed with minimal local infrastructure
investment, and can quickly bring cost-effective internet services
to emerging markets where large gaps exist between demand and the
affordability and availability of internet services.
"In Mexico, there are millions of citizens that have been left
unconnected due to high terrestrial and wireless infrastructure
deployment costs associated with geographically-dispersed and
remote communities," said Kevin
Cohen, managing director, Global Community Wi-Fi at Viasat.
"Viasat is changing that. Our cost-effective satellite
infrastructure and attractive bandwidth economics coupled with our
innovative Community Wi-Fi business model, enables us to bring
digital inclusion to the region through the availability of
affordable, high-quality, high-speed internet services. Today,
through our relationship with Grupo Prosperist, we are in reach of
over one million Mexican citizens—delivering up to 50 Megabit per
second speeds—and we fully expect our opportunity to grow over the
next few years as we continue to connect unconnected
communities."
Javier Ramirez Navarro,
co-founder and CEO at Grupo Prosperist added, "Grupo Prosperist is
dedicated to investing in innovative technology and services that
will enhance the lives of people throughout rural Mexico. We believe connectivity is a strong
medium for economic and social development. By working with
Viasat we can bring the internet to millions of Mexicans and help
generate a positive socio-economic impact in regions where
traditional terrestrial and wireless internet services were either
non-existent or cost prohibitive. The demand for Viasat's Community
Wi-Fi service has been high, which has led to job creation and
local hiring to support the deployment of Viasat's services across
the county."
Scaling to meet the Community Wi-Fi service demand in
Mexico
Since signing the
strategic agreement with Viasat, Grupo Prosperist has hired
more than 40 people in Mexico,
growing to more than 100 employees between their headquarters in
Tijuana and logistics center in
Mexico City. Viasat is also
evaluating a number of strategic partnerships to provide additional
value-added services such as microfinance, mobile banking,
education and telemedicine.
For more information on Viasat's Community Wi-Fi platform, visit
Viasat's website here.
About Grupo Prosperist
Grupo Prosperist has been
working in the telecommunications industry for more than nine
years, providing rural Mexico with
internet solutions through their Conectaless product,
communications and telephony services with their Marcaless product
and online payment solutions with Pagaless. The Company has
primarily focused on delivering connectivity solutions to remote
Mexican markets, bringing solutions that are directly aimed at
developing the rural populations that are without cellular coverage
or conventional telecom services.
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 relationship
between Viasat and Grupo Prosperist; the planned expansion of
the Community Wi-Fi service in Mexico; and the potential roll-out of new
strategic partnerships to provide value-added services such as
microfinance, mobile banking, education and telemedicine. Readers
are cautioned that actual results could differ materially from
those expressed in any forward-looking statements. Factors that
could cause actual results to differ include: contractual problems,
product defects, manufacturing issues or delays, regulatory issues,
technologies not performing in accordance with expectations,
increased competition and other factors affecting the Mexican
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.
Copyright © 2019 Viasat, Inc. All rights
reserved. Viasat is a registered trademark
of Viasat, Inc. The Viasat logo is a trademark
of Viasat, Inc. All other product or company names
mentioned are used for identification purposes only and may be
trademarks of their respective owners.
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SOURCE Viasat, Inc.