Viasat and Space42 Greenlight $1B Equatys JV for Global D2D Infrastructure

Strategic Infrastructure Consolidation

Space42 and Viasat have formally established Equatys, a joint venture focused on shared satellite and ground infrastructure. According to Payload, the entities have committed up to $1 billion in equity to the project, with an initial $800 million tranche—split evenly at $400 million each—contingent on regulatory clearance and Viasat’s selection as the prime technology contractor.

The Tower Model in Orbit

Equatys operates on a telecom-tower business model. Under this framework, multiple operators share the physical space assets and ground stations while maintaining proprietary control over their respective spectrum and customer bases. Space42 is expected to lead a future $200 million funding round open to external investors to further capitalize the venture.

Deployment Timeline and Scale

The constellation’s architecture is designed for massive scalability across three altitude layers:

• ▸Phase 1: Roughly 200 satellites providing continuous coverage up to 55° latitude.
• ▸Final Configuration: Up to 2,800 satellites distributed across 60 orbital planes.

While the commercial rollout was originally targeted for 2025, the timeline has shifted. Operations are now slated to begin by the end of 2029.

Eliminating Terrestrial Gaps

Viasat CEO Mark Dankberg identified the venture's primary technical objective as the elimination of dropped calls. The system aims to facilitate a seamless handoff between terrestrial cells and satellite nodes, a capability currently unavailable in existing mobile networks. Space42 Managing Director Karim Michel Sabbagh emphasized that for the venture to succeed, the unit economics of satellite calls must achieve parity with terrestrial network costs.