ViaSat has been awarded contracts valued at approximately $40 million by Boeing to develop a ground based beam forming (GBBF) system for the Mexican Satellite System (MEXSAT).

The beam forming system is designed to operate with the Boeing L-band geomobile satellite system being provided for Secretaria de Communicaciones y Transportes (SCT) of Mexico.

ViaSat is under contract to supply Boeing with GBBF processors, the control and management system, and the uplink beacon stations to be deployed in two ground stations in Mexico City and Hermosillo, Mexico.

The system creates hundreds of small, flexible, adaptive "spot" beams on the earth that link small, handheld satellite devices. While the beams are projected on the earth by the satellite, the GBBF system performs the actual beam-shaping signal processing.

"This GBBF program for the MEXSAT is the second GBBF system that ViaSat will be developing for Boeing," said Dr. Prakash Chitre, VP and general manager of the Comsat Labs division of ViaSat.

"This development continues our successful relationship with Boeing and adds to our long history of innovation in new satellite communication technologies."