Viasat, Space42 Spending up to $1 Billion on Direct-to-Device Venture Equatys
The companies are planning a 2,800-satellite constellation that multiple tenants could use to provide connectivity
WASHINGTON, Sept. 15, 2026 – Satellite operators Viasat and Space42 are putting up to $1 billion toward a direct-to-device joint venture, the companies announced Monday.
The venture, called Equatys, will get $400 million from each company. UAE-based Space42 is expected to put up another $200 million in a future funding round.
That round would be open to third parties, the companies said. Viasat is expected to be Equatys’s “prime technology contractor.”
The plan is for Equatys to provide satellites and terrestrial towers that multiple mobile operators can contract with Equatys to use. The initial constellation would consist of 2,800 satellites, the company said, and use Space42 and Viasat’s L-band and S-band spectrum holdings.
Exclusive direct-to-device spectrum like the companies have has recently become a valuable commodity. SpaceX is acquiring $19.6 billion of spectrum from EchoStar, Amazon is acquiring Globalstar for $11.6 billion largely for its spectrum assets, and AST SpaceMobile is seeking an agreement to use Ligado’s L-band holdings.
Those operators see exclusive airwaves as a means of offering direct-to-device themselves, without a mobile carrier necessarily involved. Viasat and Space43, meanwhile, pitched Equatys as a platform for others to use in service of providing connectivity.
“Participating operating licensees sharing infrastructure can realize greater cost efficiency than is likely possible within their own geographic coverage area and/or spectrum authorizations – potentially rivalling or surpassing even the largest individual constellations,” the companies said in a release.
Those individual constellations include SpaceX’s planned 15,000-satellite direct-to-device system and Amazon’s planned 5,100-satellite network, each supporting the company’s own service. Those both still need federal approval.
Earlier this summer satellite analyst Tim Farrar said in a blog post that Rocket Lab’s agreement to buy Iridium for $8 billion made it unlikely Rocket Lab would be an investor in Equatys. Space42 had previously suggested Rocket Lab would be involved, but the company wasn’t named in Sunday’s announcement.
But analysts at New Street Research wrote in a Tuesday investor note that Rocket Lab was still the most likely candidate for third party investors.
“Rocket Lab had previously been linked with the project, and we continue to see them as the most credible candidate,” wrote New Street analysts led by James Ratzer. “Rocket Lab is the only commercially proven, scalable and independent Western player able to supply both constellation-scale manufacturing and low-cost launch — the two capabilities Equatys still lacks.”
Rocket Lab, a launch provider, is also acquiring Iridium for its exclusive spectrum, but the company is aiming to stick with aviation and navigation services rather than consumer broadband.
“By creating a system with state of the art technology, and mechanisms for neutral, shared, and trusted infrastructure access, Equatys will accelerate innovation in space-based connectivity [and] establish a scalable and interoperable architecture designed to support a full ecosystem of participants with choice and economies of scale,” Viasat CEO and co-founder Mark Dankberg said in a statement.
The big mobile carriers in the U.S. are planning on a joint venture that’s essentially the inverse of Equatys: a pool of terrestrial spectrum resources any satellite company can use to provide service outside the reaches of mobile networks.
The venture is seen as a means of countering mobile competition from SpaceX, both by making it easier for potential competitors to provide service and by shutting down a potential deal with one of the carriers.
Update: This story was updated to include commentary from New Street Research
