Viasat, Inc. (VSAT) Q4 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

My name is Jericho, and I will be your conference facilitator this afternoon. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Viasat Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2026 Earnings Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the call over to Ms. Lisa Curran, Chief Enterprise and Strategy Officer. Ms. Curran, you may begin the conference.

Thank you, Jericho. We will present certain non-GAAP financial measures on today's call. Information required by the SEC relating to these non-GAAP financial measures is available in our Q4 fiscal year '26 shareholder letter on the Investor Relations section of our website. During the presentation, we will describe certain of the more significant factors that impacted year-over-year performance. We will also make forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including statements regarding events or developments that we expect or anticipate will or may occur in the future. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, and actual results might differ materially from any forward-looking statements that we make today. Information regarding these factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements is available in our SEC filings and annual report on Form 10-K. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and we do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements. With that, I'll turn it over to Mark Dankberg, Chairman and CEO.

Good afternoon, and thanks for joining us today. I'm Mark Dankberg, CEO and Chairman of Viasat. With me, along with Lisa, we have Gary Chase, our Chief Financial Officer. As always, we encourage reading the shareholder better and referencing the slides we posted on our website earlier this afternoon for more details. I'll start with 3 areas upfront, then Gary will review our fiscal year '26 and fourth quarter results and our preliminary outlook for fiscal year '27. Then we'll take questions. I'll cover an update on our strategic perspective, including the cooperation agreement with Carronade Capital Management and updates on ViaSat-3 Flights 2 and 3, our top-level financial year '26 results and our near-term objectives and operational and strategic initiatives. First, I'd like to welcome Shekar Ayyar and Jinhy Yoon to our Board of Directors. Shekar is a seasoned technology executive with deep operating experience at scale across enterprise software, cloud, networking and communications infrastructure with significant public company experience, including business strategy and M&A. His board experience includes seeing Altair through its $10-plus billion sale to Siemens. Jinhy brings strong financial governance and capital allocation experience to the Board, advising on and structuring billions of dollars in public debt issuances and working extensively with executive teams on strategic transactions and risk management, including as a member of Intelsat's Board through the completion of its sale to SES. Both Shekar and Jinhy have been appointed to our Board's Strategic Review Committee. Earlier this month, we also announced a cooperation agreement with Carronade. We have appreciated the constructive dialogue with Carronade over the past year and are pleased with this agreement, which we believe is in the best interest of Viasat and its shareholders. On the ViaSat-3 front, subsequent to quarter end, we successfully completed all deployments on Flight 2, including the [ reflectors and bloom ]. Surface entry is pending authorization from the FCC. Also, subsequent to quarter end, ViaSat-3 Flight 3 [ landed ] successfully on April 29. Since then, radiator and solar array deployments have been successfully completed, and [ what we raising ] is underway. Flight 3 is expected to cover the Asia Pacific region, [ arrive on ] station in about a month and have surface entry expected in August or September of this calendar year. Our ongoing fleet expansions support growth initiatives in aviation, maritime, fixed services and government SATCOM businesses. It also introduces important new capabilities, including new forms of resilience for our government and commercial customers. We believe that the ViaSat-3 satellites are the most advanced commercial satellites in the world in terms of adaptive beam forming for cost efficiencies, user performance improvements and resilience to interference. We also believe they set new commercial standards for solar power generation and thermal dissipation. Both those capabilities are among the foundational technology challenges for developing economical data center space. Switching to fiscal year '26 results. Those financial results were largely consistent with our expectations and plans entering the year despite headwinds from the U.S. government shutdown during the back half of the fiscal year. Gary will go through the financial results in greater detail, but some highlights include record new contract awards and backlog, along with modest growth in revenue and adjusted EBITDA that are also both at record levels. Our cash generation is a clear standout, as we generated nearly $600 million in free cash flow and about $180 million, excluding the lump sum Ligado payment. We've also had positive free cash flow in each of the last 5 quarters. We've achieved this while still investing for our future. And our strong cash performance has contributed to strengthening our capital structure, including very substantial progress towards our target leverage ratio of below 3.0. So switching to near-term operational and strategic initiatives. As I shared last quarter, we have 3 key near-term focus areas to drive growth in fiscal '27 and beyond. First, our ongoing fleet expansion is expected to roughly triple bandwidth inventory, and increasing adaptive beam forming flexibility is an additional boost to the fleet's effective capacity, offering higher speeds on both forward and return links. We'll also expand our fleet-wide multi-orbit capabilities in maritime by augmenting our existing LEO and GEO resources. We are making steady progress on our [ ERA ] Ka-band multi-orbit terminal for in-flight communications, which has already entered the line-fit certification process for all Boeing commercial airliners. Telesat is also progressing with the launch of its first [ Pathfinder ] Lightspeed LEO satellites scheduled this year and initial global service plan for late next year. While the market for broadband satellite services is very competitive, also growing rapidly, and we believe we have a good opportunity to grow with it. Our second key area is developing and deploying shared multi-tenant, multi-orbit, L- and S-band shared infrastructure, delivering next-generation mobile satellite services, including for global air and maritime safety as well as next-generation air, ground and maritime vehicle autonomy, along with mobile direct-to-device opportunities with a focus on lowering capital intensity. While we are aiming for services in 2029, we are targeting significant revenue from our role as the technology provider for Equatys, the space infrastructure entity we are forming along with Space42. And third, we also intend to sustain the rapid growth rate in our DAT segment for both defense and commercial markets, building on our dual-use advanced technology. The DAT segments is the first place that new [ test ] developments as we're doing for Equatys would be recognized. The Equatys initiative for next-generation L- and S-band space and ground infrastructure is anticipated to be an important contributor for broadband services, mobile L- and S-band services and [ that ]. We continue to work closely with Space42 and other potential partners as cofounders of the new shared infrastructure entity that is intended to substantially improve capital productivity for L- and S-band satellite mobility services. Equatys infrastructure is intended to enable 3GPP standards for interoperable nonterrestrial network services through both satellite specific and terrestrial frequencies. The shared tower infrastructure model can enable greater spectrum efficiency as well as reduced infrastructure costs for all participating parties. As with terrestrial shared tower infrastructure, the spectrum rights and obligations remain with the participating licensees, which are initially Viasat and Space42, but with potential to grow for additional partners. Viasat is expected to participate as the initial technology prime contractor for Equatys. Space-based L- and S-band beam forming technology is at the heart of the NTN direct-to-device opportunity, and our technology solution both benefit from and advances our long history of advanced L-band and Ka-band broadband space-based phased array technology. The foundational Equatys satellite and phased array technologies are also designed to support multi-orbit broadband such as Ka-band services at both GEO and LEO orbits. The near-term market for commercial and government broadband satellite services remains both highly competitive and rapidly growing. Viasat has recently seen double-digit revenue earnings growth in aviation, offset by declines in fixed residential services and maritime. In fiscal '27, we anticipate financial results and fixed and residential services will improve, but increased competition will reduce our growth rate in aviation services. However, we're seeing accelerated growth opportunities in our DAT segment, that in combination with our Communication Services segment, creates opportunities for accelerating company-wide revenue growth ahead. The space sector is poised to benefit from a number of exciting new defense, commercial and scientific initiatives, and we believe Viasat is well positioned to participate in a number of those. We believe our relatively unique position as both a leading space technology innovator and a leading satellite services company helps differentiate us from competitors that are, in most cases, not vertically integrated across those markets. In the near term, many of those opportunities will first be captured in our DAT segment. I'd like to point out a few opportunities that generally involve innovations and business models as well as technology. One key opportunity was just announced last week, when subsequent to the end of in Q4, we received a follow-on award through our initial phase of the PTSG or protected tactical satellite global contract for a first delivery of a small, low-cost maneuverable dual-band geosynchronous orbit U.S. government tactical satellite. We believe PTSG is an excellent opportunity to grow our participation in government tactical space system technologies and services and an opportunity to use technology innovation to substantially increase the effectiveness and resilience of U.S. tactical broadband satellite communications while helping address potential threats to other [ Orbiten ] systems. PTSG is closely related to the existing WGS or Wideband Global System U.S. tactical satellite network through which the U.S. has a significant range of international partnerships and coalition interoperability relationships. So there's also a meaningful international opportunity. There are also substantial follow-on opportunities in related dual-use broadband space technology and services. Our low-cost L- and S-band multi-orbit proliferated LEO and low-cost broadband maneuverable GEO satellites share important technology foundations and are evidence of the value of our vertical integration, dual use multi-orbit multiband assets, resources and capabilities. We believe this is a key differentiator for us to provide resilient and highly valuable services to our government and commercial customers across bands and orbits. Recently, the 3 major U.S. mobile carriers announced plans to create a joint venture around direct-to-device nonterrestrial network services. As a reminder, there are D2D opportunities using both [ Viasat ] satellite spectrum and supplemental satellite use of terrestrial spectrum each offering distinct use cases. Terrestrial spectrum used to be that space towers can extend coverage into places where no terrestrial coverage exists. Satellite spectrum can do that and can also be used via space towers as overlays to perfect service gaps in places where there already is coverage through terrestrial towers or access points. The Equatys business model is organized to support a full service business where Viasat could compete to deliver standard interoperable directed device nonterrestrial network services using licensed satellite L- or S-band spectrum. Or a JV or the individual global network operators could simply contract per share space power infrastructure to support those mobile network operators already own terrestrial spectrum in locations where that is appropriate. Think of Equatys as a unique player offering unbundled space infrastructure, ground infrastructure and/or shared network operations as well as being a platform for satellite operators such as Viasat or Space42 or other global or regional satellite operators to offer direct-to-device services using their own [ VISIB ] spectrum. The U.S. mobile network operator joint venture, or D2D NTN, is an example of an application that we see as a good growth opportunity for Viasat as both a service provider and of the initial Equatys technology provider in supporting mobile network operators in applying satellite to best augment their terrestrial networks. Another area driving innovation and growth in satellite technology is the potential for space data centers. While launch is certainly a key enabling technology, there are several other areas that overlap key enabling satellite communications technologies such as solar power generation, thermal dissipation, radiation hardening of tolerance for advanced digital computing, space-to-ground and space-to-space broadband communications, including both RF and optical and orchestration and coordination of congested orbital spectrum and spatial resources. We believe we have standard the art expertise and technology to a number of these areas and have a number of avenues available for research and partnerships. It's on our target list of DAT growth opportunities, taking advantage of our multi-orbit tool use vertically integrated technology base. We have several of these significant data opportunities pending, and we'll update our fiscal year '27 outlook as those opportunities mature over the first half of this fiscal year. So in summary, our performance over fiscal year '26 demonstrates our ability to translate strategy into attractive financial results with cash flow and net leverage improvements as key indicators and to balance near-term execution with long-term strategic positioning and also the resilience and commitment of our team to meet the challenges associated with cutting-edge space technology. We're highly focused on a critical few strategic initiatives to ensure we can participate in rapidly evolving markets, technologies and business models while maintaining top-tier competitive positions. We have optionality in our longer-term plans, building on reduced capital intensity and improving return on invested capital with key levers available to realize shareholder value. So with that, I'll turn it over to Gary for more information on our fourth quarter financial results and our outlook for fiscal '27.

Thank you, Mark. More importantly, thank you to the Viasat team for the hard work you put into making fiscal '26 a success. We're going to need your continued dedication to ensure fiscal '27 is also a success. Our financial journey breaks into the 3 pillars you've heard me talk about often, building our franchise, generating cash and reducing our leverage. Using this lens, I'll start with a discussion of 4Q results. I'll then recap fiscal '26, then we'll move on to the outlook for the current year. All my statements that follow in this section will reference the fourth quarter of fiscal '26 compared to the prior year period of the fourth quarter of fiscal year '25. Awards were about $1.3 billion, up 9%, led by Communication Services with Maritime, Governments, SATCOM and Aviation the drivers of the growth in the quarter. Backlog was a record at approximately $4.1 billion, up 15% with double-digit growth in both Communication Services and DAT. Revenue was $1.2 billion, up approximately 2%, reflecting 12% growth in DAT, partially offset by a 2% decline in Communications Services. Net income was $59 million, an improvement of $305 million, principally due to a gain from the sale of our equity investment in Navarino, lower G&A expense mainly from last year's impairment charge and lower interest expense. Adjusted EBITDA was $370 million, down 1%, which primarily reflect the incremental R&D related to growth initiatives and higher-than-expected impact from the government shutdown. Capital expenditures rose to $298 million, up 20% as we invested in the completion of our ViaSat-3 system. Importantly, we generated $24 million of positive free cash flow in the quarter despite the CapEx noted above, which was the highest CapEx quarter of the year. In March, we completed the divestiture of our interest in Navarino. Navarino's results previously flowed through the equity and income line item on our income statement and into the adjusted EBITDA we report. We received gross proceeds from the sale of $203 million in the quarter. Our net debt relative to trailing adjusted EBITDA sits at 3.1x, improved sequentially and substantially versus the prior year period. Now let's turn to some segment highlights. In Communication Services, awards of $877 million increased 13%, driven by strength in Maritime, Government SATCOM and Aviation. Revenue was $810 million, down 2%. Growth in Aviation and Government SATCOM was more than offset by a decline in residential fixed broadband. Aviation revenue grew 11%, ending with approximately 4,450 commercial aircraft in service, a 10% increase year-over-year, combined with higher average revenue per aircraft, with units flowing in and out of our aircraft unit backlog each quarter. On a net basis, this quarter's new aircraft awards were positive, but we had a healthy number of installations. At quarter end, the net of these factors left our commercial aircraft unit backlog at 1,000. We expect these units to be put into service with our IFC systems under existing customer agreements. Our Government SATCOM revenue grew 5%, reflecting good growth with U.S. and international governments. Government awards and backlog were up 18% year-over-year, and we drove revenue out of IDIQ contracts in place. We didn't quite hit our objective of returning Maritime revenue to growth. Revenue declined 1% as vessels and service were down. We ended the quarter with about 1,350 NexusWave vessels in service, 1,500 more in backlog. Demand for NexusWave remains strong, and we have more work to do to accelerate installations. I'll talk more about the outlook in a few minutes. Fixed services and other revenue was down 24% as U.S. fixed broadband subs continue to decline. We ended the quarter with 130,000 subscribers and $113 average revenue per user. Communication Services adjusted EBITDA was $287 million, down 6%, primarily driven by the decline in fixed services and other, in combination with higher investments in R&D, including multi-orbit aviation terminals. Let me turn now to Defense & Advanced Technologies performance during the quarter. Our DAT segment awards was $403 million, increased 2%, driven by growth in Infosec and cyber defense. Award growth can vary quarter-to-quarter, and we continue to see a very strong growth environment for our DAT business. DAT revenue was $361 million, up 12%, driven by strong growth in Infosec and cyber and space and mission Systems. Infosec and cyber product revenues were up 24%, driven by growth in our high assurance encryption products. Space and mission systems revenues were up 16%, led by growth in restricted payloads. Tactical Networking revenues were up 4% year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA was $83 million, up 20%, driven by revenue growth and positive operating leverage, partially offset by incremental R&D investments. Let me now make a few observations about our performance across the year. My statements in this section will reference full year fiscal '26 as compared to full year fiscal '25. For fiscal '26, we delivered revenue of $4.6 billion, a GAAP net loss of $34 million and adjusted EBITDA of $1.55 billion. Cash flow from operations was $1.6 billion or $1.2 billion, excluding the lump sum payment from Ligado, with CapEx of just under $1 billion, resulting in free cash flow of $597 million or $177 million excluding the lump sum payment last quarter. We achieved our financial guidance for the year, but for Viasat, fiscal '26 was about more than making the numbers. We needed to position ourselves for future growth. We didn't get as far as we initially hoped in some areas, but made solid progress in a number of others. We didn't quite turn the corner on Maritime revenue as we hoped we might. We came close, but now believe it will take until later in fiscal '27 to see that inflection point sustain. More impactful, we didn't see stabilization in our fixed broadband business. But we made great progress on getting our satellites launched and successfully advancing towards service entry readiness. Aviation and government SATCOM had another strong year, while our DAT team delivered an excellent year of revenue growth and also landed critical awards that underpin continued growth in the years ahead. From a cash flow point of view, our teams delivered in a big way. Not only did we succeed in not burning cash, we generated almost $180 million with positive free cash flow in each of the last 5 quarters. We also delivered on the third pillar of reducing leverage, cash generation. When combined with inflows from Ligado and the sale of Navarino, allowed us to pay down $743 million of debt while growing our available cash balance, bringing net debt to $4.8 billion and our net leverage ratio down to 3.1x. We've made remarkable progress on our goal of less than 3x leverage, and I want to specifically thank the Viasat team for delivering on that mission and reducing our financial risk so profoundly. Now let's turn to the outlook for fiscal '27. We expect revenue to grow mid-single digits with Communication Services growth of low single digits and [ that ] growth in the mid-teens. We expect our adjusted EBITDA to be flat to up slightly and backloaded within the year. Two things of note are declining impact from the intellectual property settlement of a few years ago in our Advanced Technologies and other business and the removal of Navarino EBITDA following the recent sale. In combination, these items are headwinds to fiscal '27 EBITDA with impact of about 2 percentage points versus fiscal '26. Let me add some additional segment color, starting with Communications Services. Within Aviation, we expect revenue growth as ARPU expands with more of our customer base migrating to full fast free offerings. As Mark said, however, we expect the rate of that growth to moderate. We expect maritime vessels to decline modestly but expect significant growth in the NexusWave installed base that offers customers more value and drives higher ARPUs. We expect stabilization of our fixed broadband business to occur as ViaSat-3 enters service, but expect continued declines until that time. We expect another year of growth within government SATCOM. Given the secular growth in defense and our position in key markets, combined with our technology leadership, we're looking for very good growth across DAT. We expect another year of strong revenue growth from encryption and accelerated growth from Space and Mission Systems and tactical networking. The teams delivered some big wins in fiscal '26, which has driven backlog up 23% year-over-year with even more wins very recently. As Mark highlighted, just last week, we were selected as 1 of 2 IDIQ award by the U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command to deliver space vehicles in support of the Protected Tactical Satellite Global or PTSG program. This is a very exciting program and the win is indicative of our ability to compete for and earn the business of our customers in the most important high-growth markets. We expect fiscal '27 reported CapEx of $950 million to $1 billion with a modest increase in our cash CapEx from $760 million in fiscal '26 to about $850 million. The balance will be in capitalized interest, which will decline from more than $200 million in fiscal '26 to $125 million to $150 million in fiscal '27. Please note the reduction in capitalized interest will be part of a migration of cash interest out of CapEx and into operating cash flow. This change does not affect cash flow, but it is a headwind to our cash from operations versus the prior year. Our CapEx excluding the capitalized interest noted above for fiscal '27 breaks down as follows when compared to fiscal '26. Maintenance is flat at about $400 million. ViaSat-3 is down $150 million to about $50 million. Success base is expected to increase from $50 million to $150 million. And about $225 million to $250 million is for growth CapEx with an emphasis on future satellites other than ViaSat-3 as well as the DAT segment and government SATCOM. Inmarsat CapEx is expected to be $325 million and is embedded within the consolidated numbers I just guided to. The year-over-year changes are driven by an approximate $100 million reduction in ViaSat-3 spend, offset by higher success-based spend that comes primarily from Maritime and NexusWave, along with higher growth spend in DAT. We've decisively turned the corner on free cash flow and expect another year of similar free cash flow or about $180 million. In terms of leverage, while we made great progress on our goals, we have more work ahead. The delevering we've achieved this year has meaningfully improved our credit profile. We've seen a strong response in the credit markets to that improvement, and we are evaluating the possibility beginning to reshape our capital structure. We made a lot of progress in fiscal '26. We've turned the corner on free cash flow, brought leverage down meaningfully and expect that we'll soon bring a lot of ViaSat-3 capacity and capabilities to market that will help us deliver for our customers in key growth markets. As we'll soon transition a lot more capital from unproductive to productive, we're working on driving our returns on capital higher. Returns on capital have always been at the heart of our financial journey that you keep hearing about. Franchise and earnings growth drive the numerator of that equation or returns higher. Free cash flow and asset sales reduce invested capital and improve the denominator. We know we have a lot of hard work in front of us to get our earnings on to a higher growth trajectory. We achieved a lot in fiscal '26, and we'll continue to build on that foundation in fiscal '27. We're excited for the opportunities ahead and focused on doing right by our customers. The Viasat team is up to the challenge, and we thank you for your continued support as we work to make fiscal '27 an even better year. With that, I'd like to hand the call back to Mark.

Thanks, Gary. So [ Kara ], I think now we'll be happy to take some time with some questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Edison Yu from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

I wanted to ask first on Equatys. Can you remind us, how do we think about the value capture you're looking to provide? And what are you really seeking from some of the partner discussions you're having? And an example would be, are you looking for someone to provide the satellite buzz? Are you looking simply for customers? Just trying to get an idea of what the role of all the various parties here are.

Okay. Okay. So first of all, the basic idea on Equatys is shared infrastructure, which is really carried over from the terrestrial mobile networks environment where originally, for terrestrial operators, they each have their own tower networks, but they were all doing the same thing. Single tower could support spectrum from multiple operators that reduced costs, and it really didn't affect the operator's ability to differentiate since they're using the same network. So the fundamental idea of Equatys is to share a network infrastructure. And then to -- think of it as Viasat and Space42 each as mobile satellite services operators rather than each having their own satellites, each of which only lights up a relatively small amount of spectrum. We can have common satellites that light up both of our spectrums, and then we can each perform our -- or deliver services with a lower cost basis, makes it less capital-intensive, good for investors, lower cost we can pass on to our customers, good for customers, too. So that's the basic idea. The other thing that is interesting about it is given that what we're partnering on is a low earth orbit or LEO version of it. Remember, the satellites are roughly -- think of it as roughly evenly distributed around the world. So 1 of the opportunities to further improve cost efficiency and cost savings would be to invite other partners who may be regional operator, Viasat global Space42 is not quite global, but they cover a lot of the world, but there are also a number of regional players where if they had their own LEO system, would -- only a small portion of the satellite would be over that region. So if they share ours, it just reinforces the cost savings that we can achieve otherwise. And the other opportunity is to coordinate spectrum in a way that allows more spectrum to be brought into use. So those are the fundamental reasons to create an entity like Equatys, which is -- I think that's part of what the name is intended to apply is that it's an unbiased shared common infrastructure, similar to what you'd see in the terrestrial business. So that -- so the 1 set of partners. Think of it as a multisided market, 1 set of partners that we're talking to are other regional operators. They could have terrestrial spectrum or they could have satellite spectrum that would benefit from sharing in that shared infrastructure because they have other parts of the value chain themselves. So that's 1 set of partners that we're looking for. We also are looking to make sure that the infrastructure that we're building in the space infrastructure is as cost effective as can be. So Viasat is really providing the lead network payload technology. Most of all of the networking, beam forming, those things. And we are open to partners for other parts of the infrastructure value chain. That could include launch, buses. Those are probably 2 of the primary ones. It also could include potential low-cost manufacturers or manufacturers who are associated with given geographic regions and would be preferred by certain -- by their regional spectrum holders or service providers. Those are the flavors. We're also -- we also think that Equatys as a stand-alone company is going to be a good investment. It should have really good opportunities for growth as we add partners and the market for these services grow due to things like autonomous vehicles, whether land, sea or air, direct-to-device, as well as the traditional mobile satellite services that we provide now. Does that help?

Yes. Yes. Just 1 follow-up. I appreciate all the color. I believe in the shareholder letter, you did mention that you're aiming to deploy services in 2029. So I guess, for the bus and for the launch, when do you start needing to actually need to nail those items down, like selecting a bus provider, getting launch -- getting on the launch benefits? Because the guys out there are pretty full. So when do those decisions -- those kind of big decisions on those 2 things need to be made by?

They're being made now. And I think what Space42 has recently disclosed, and we support that, is there should be a follow-on our investor conference that we'll have that will just focus on Equatys so that we can answer these more detailed questions. But we're just waiting for -- to finalize all of the associated basic agreements before we do that, before we disclose those details. But we do have. But obviously -- I think your point is, yes, if we're going to be in service in '29, we need to have those things in the works now, and we're aware of that, and we'll give more detail as soon as those agreements are concluded.

Next question comes from Brent Penter with Raymond James. Please go ahead.

A lot of detail in the letter and opening remarks. You talked about how you stand to benefit from vertical integration and DAT's role as a technology provider, including having a role in Equatys. Can you update us on where the strategic review of the DAT business stands and how those benefits could be maintained should you decide to go down the path of a split?

Okay. Yes. I mean, I think, first of all, we've had lots of good input and evaluation about the potential for a spinoff. I think that the -- let's say, the core element of that is that there's a good growth opportunity in defense and these advanced technologies. And the real issue is can -- is it an appreciating asset. If it's an appreciating asset, it's going to grow, it's going to have value either within the company or without. There may be a little bit of a -- certainly could be a little bit of a difference or some difference based on whether it's a stand-alone equity or part of a larger company. But the core issue is, is it an appreciating asset. And right now, we're in an environment where dual use is really important from a commercial and military perspective, but so is the element of both having technology and the services component that goes with it. And it is interesting that both teams that won on PTSG do have the ability to both operate as well as develop the technology. And what we see, if you look at what the long-term goals are for PTSG, it would be substantially larger fleet of much smaller agile satellites. And so there's certainly this element of both the dual use and the vertical integration between technology and services. And it's a big potential franchise. I mean, that's a -- it's a multibillion-dollar opportunity. So at least as long as we can see that we're going to be better positioned in this element of Space and Mission Systems by keeping it within the company, then I think we'll do that for some period of time. But -- so think of it as spin-off is more of a one-way door while we have it, and it's growing, it still gives us optionality.

Okay. Okay. And then another kind of strategic question. The letter in your opening remarks talked about how spectrum holders like Viasat and Space42 will maintain their spectrum licenses and obligation in Equatys. We've seen some very high valuations for spectrum recently. So I just want to make sure if the opportunity arises for some higher shareholder value use of your spectrum, what kind of flexibility does Equatys give you? And how would you approach those opportunities?

Okay. From the Viasat perspective, the core issue is the value from developing the spectrum or bringing the spectrum to market greater than or equal to the value of transacting the spectrum. So in order for us to have -- you'd have a good sense of what the alternative value is. What we're looking for is a vehicle to bring it to market. And that Equatys represents that. It's -- and we think it's very capital efficient because Equatys doesn't solely depend on us bringing it to market. It's basically going to serve multiple different spectrum holders. I think that makes it attractive as well. And it also makes it attractive to us as a cost-effective way to be able to bring it to market. The other thing is because the spectrum resides with us, we have the opportunity to -- think of it as it doesn't have to be binary. We don't have to sell all of it, nor do we have to bring all of it to market. We can look at either different geographies. We can look at different market segments and make sure that we're getting the best value for our shareholders through some -- think of it as some combination of transacting and developing, which could be all of either one, but doesn't have to be. And I guess the other point I would make is it's a very dynamic market. And things are playing out. But right now, it seems -- and we can see this both from looking at transactions in the market and looking at what the demands are that we can be really well positioned to develop it. So as long as we see that, we can continue down that path instead of optionality.

Our next question comes from Sebastiano Petti with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Maybe going back to Equatys real quick, following up on Edison's question. So Mark, is there anything you can perhaps share about capital structure or the funding mechanism? And what Viasat may -- help us think about the contribution perhaps or the investment that Viasat might make above and beyond spectrum? Because that's kind of a little bit of a debate out there in the market as we think about the value unlocked from Equatys. Are you bringing the spectrum to market -- are you bringing the spectrum to the JV and some of the expertise from a technology perspective, but should we also consider perhaps, contribution from a capital perspective as well coming from the Viasat balance sheet? And then thinking -- maybe shifting gears to aviation for a second. You talked about the growth slowing because of competition. Any help in terms of -- is that fully on the commercial aviation side? What are you also seeing on the BA side? And Gary, I think in your prepared remarks, you talked about -- the backlog is going to be installed from existing commercial agreements. Help us think about what's the posture of current RFPs in the market now and your expectation for jump balls, I guess, from here?

We'll cover both of those. First, on the Equatys side, we will discuss the cap structure more in detail when we conclude the agreements. And we think that, that -- Equatys will be -- ultimately, it will be financed through some combination of equity and debt. We'll talk about that, what our plans are and what we think the overall infrastructure sort of the range of budget will be when we conclude the agreements. And that shouldn't be that far away. The other thing I would like to just clarify is, we're not going to be contributing spectrum to Equatys. We will we can play our spectrum through Equatys. We will play some of our spectrum through our existing and expanding GEO fleet as well. So think of it, Equatys -- but really, Equatys' value proposition is to investors, including us, to the extent we participate in the cap structure is its value proposition is that it's the lowest cost way for anybody that wants to play spectrum through space. It should be the lowest cost way for them to do that. And there's an opportunity to grow the initial constellation substantially to meet the demand as it materializes in these mobile satellite services and D2D markets. So we'll give more clarity on that when we do the follow-up discussion. On the aviation side, think of it as there are several factors at play. First on commercial aviation. What we're seeing is more and more of the airlines that do have in-flight connectivity are opting for some form of free model or third-party pay model which greatly increases the take rate, right, for user penetration. And so that tends to lift the average revenue per plane. On the other hand, what we're seeing is with increased penetration and -- increased penetration and increased usage on improved passenger basis takes a lot more bandwidth to play. So I think that you're getting the ViaSat-3 in service, certainly makes us way more competitive on that front. The other thing that we're seeing is that in-flight connectivity is a really popular feature among passengers. It influences passenger preference for airlines. So the number of planes that are being outfitted is growing relatively tactically. So those are the 3 factors. I think that what we are anticipating is that just what we said that we'll see net good growth, but probably at a growth rate that was lower than it had been going into this year, partly through more planes. And there will be some -- we'll find out what the market price is through competition, through this combination of increased penetration, increased per capita use. That -- those are the factors.

Sebastiano, I think you also had a question on backlog. But before we get to it, just to clarify on Equatys, we're obviously still in an active discussion. We don't want to be negotiating that in the public. What we have said is well, we also want to avoid reading too much into snippets. When -- as Mark described, when we're ready, we'll provide a full picture that will give you a good sense of it. What we have said in the interim is that the impacts will be consistent with the financial journey that we keep talking about. So that part, we can say now. You, I think, had a question on backlog?

I don't know, I was going to just talk about the general aviation part of it. On the general aviation part, I think that what we're expecting is overall, the opportunity is while the high-end segments of the general aviation market are pretty well penetrated. That would be certainly global, like global, long-haul, large jets. I think that we'll see greater penetration among lower-tier jets. But again, it's going to be a more competitive market than it has been. We think -- we still think there's growth opportunity, but there's just going to be more competitors involved. I think those are the main dynamics there.

Our next question comes from [ James Frazer ] with New Street Research.

Another question, if possible, please, on Equatys. Can you give us an update on your thinking on how much of your existing L-band spectrum you actually think you can use through Equatys for D2D services without kind of affecting your existing operating business?

So that's to be determined. There are a couple of factors that are involved. One is with -- when we augment our GEO satellites with lower Earth orbit satellites, we'll be able to achieve much higher power flex densities on the ground. These higher power levels will let us get much more bandwidth through than we can now. So we could deliver the same services with -- using only a fraction of the bandwidth we currently have. What we are expecting is that in some cases, people -- the market will grow as a result of the ability to deliver higher speeds and more bandwidth for unit price. And so we'll just have to see how that plays out in the market. But from our perspective, these mobile satellite services, a, it's is part of our public interest obligation. So we're certainly going to prioritize them, and it's a good use of our spectrum and our assets. It's a good return for shareholders and customers. So we're likely to prioritize that. However, the total bandwidth consumption in the D2D market could be very, very large. And so we see that as a way to bring all of our bandwidth into play. The other factors I'm sure you're probably aware of is depending on the final 3GPP specifications and the spectrum chunks that the mobile devices support, we'll end up with -- as an example, right now, people are looking at spectrum and contiguous 5 by 5 megahertz chunks. So that may turn out to be a way that we segregate the spectrum. We're -- so the amount that goes into spectrum fragments that are consistent with the device specifications goes towards D2D, and -- but all the rest of the spectrum certainly can be used for the mobile satellite services. That's another way for us to allocate it. But ultimately, it will be driven by market demand.

Got it. And actually, following up on that point and continue on spectrum, I'd love to just hear your thoughts on the announcement yesterday out of the EC with regards to the S-band. Do you -- would you like to kind of reapply for those spectrum rights beyond 2027? I think you're now going to be limited to 10 megahertz in the S-band. Would you bid for the maximum you can get there? Or do you think there's now actually kind of increased scarcity in the L-band so maybe it doesn't actually make sense to reapply in the S-band and you can maximize more value through the larger contiguous channel you've got in the L-band?

So right now, one of the things that we think is a strength for us is through the Inmarsat acquisition, we have S-band in Europe for what's called the European Aviation Network. One of the good things is that we brought that to market. That we've actually followed through, built the infrastructure, operate the service consistent with what the application was. It's on -- it's on hundreds of airplanes now. It is a good fit for the short-haul market in Europe with smaller -- with a lot of smaller planes compared to some of the higher frequency bands. The main thing that we're seeing now is that network would benefit from being modernized, that is being able to support the same things that we described are going on in aviation in general. More passengers per plane, more bandwidth per passenger. And so that is a really good application, where the Equatys constellation could modernize that. So we absolutely will be applying to extend it. I think the -- just to be clear, the -- currently, the spectrum is divided into 2 holders, each with 15 x 15. They described holders having 10 x 10 or 5 x 5, some combination of those chunks. So we will apply. I think we -- because we're operating the service now with European partners, I think we have a good chance of being extended. I think the guidelines suggested an increment of another 7 years. I think that certainly, there's going to be a public benefit component to their decision, and I think we're going to be a good candidate from that perspective.

Our next question comes from Justin Lang with Morgan Stanley.

Just one on DAT. I think you called out a few potentially significant opportunities that could mature in the first half of your fiscal year. Can you just talk a little bit about what those opportunities are and what we should watch for? And then I was -- just to clarify, was the suggestion earlier that Oracle data centers could represent 1 of those opportunity areas? Or is that really longer term?

Yes. Okay. So the DAT -- the DAT opportunities that we have are really relatively big opportunities across the board in the 3 main areas that we report. That would be the cryptographic security issue area, space and mission systems and tactical data networks. We're seeing opportunities across each of those. The tactical data networks, it's -- a lot of it is international opportunities as well as opportunities to apply those ground networks to autonomous drones and autonomous vehicles. Those are 2 of the good opportunities there. One of the things that we pointed out in the past is that there is kind of an accelerated program in the U.S. government to upgrade its cryptographic infrastructure communications, encryption infrastructure. The big issue there is whether or not we can beat the schedule, and we think we're doing well at that. Clearly, there's demand in that area. And then the third area is Space and Mission Systems. And the big opportunities we're seeing there are dual-use applications of the commercial systems that we have and are adding to our fleet. And then also the government-specific programs that we're seeing in areas where we compete well. For instance, PTSG is a really good opportunity. And then finally, the other area that we do put in DAT as well would be new technology development or technology sales that can cover commercial or scientific missions. And so 1 of the programs we've talked about in the past that still is -- seems to be a really good opportunity for us is the Moonlight program, which is the Lunar Relay program. Certainly, interest in the Moon is definitely increasing, both in the U.S. and in Europe. And then another 1 would be commercial satellite programs that would use a new generation of technology. And that includes at L- and S-band as well as Ka-band. It's a target -- I describe it as a target-rich environment for us across the board of those areas.

Our next question comes from Mike Crawford with B. Riley Securities. .

I'd like to turn back to some of the technologies and areas of expertise that you say you have that can help enable data centers. I mean, solar power, thermal, radiation hardening, obviously, with your ability to do the beam forming and reuse the spectrum here, you're going to -- the last 2 orchestration in broadband terms. But I'm not aware that you have like solar power IP, like, for instance, something that could help enable getting a 200-kilowatt satellite for only $1 million is what some people think is required for compete in space. Can you just maybe flesh out some more of these capabilities you have?

Okay. Good. Yes. And just to cap off of last question because I didn't address it. We are not going to be building space data centers ourselves. The real opportunity for us is on these overlap technologies. And so I'm pretty sure that ViaSat-3 at 25 kilowatts of -- that's end of life power generation that I think is the largest commercial satellite ever. And the big -- and it's actually so far at the beginning of life, well in excess of that, specification. Some of this issue about what the peak power will be is going to depend on beginning of life, end of life and how long the life is. But that is -- that's a big solar structure. And different parts to it. One part is just having a large structure. Another part is building space vehicles that you can stabilize and still maneuver when you have these very large structures attached to them. So that has implications, not just for the solar generation itself, but for any -- or certainly for any other deployables on the space path. And the overall -- our structural approach to the space path. So we do have good experience there. We basically did virtually all of the thermal dissipation issues on that satellite. And that is probably -- that, again, is 1 of the most challenging aspects of it. So the opportunities for us are really to work with partners who are probably more interested in operating the data centers but are willing -- are interested and willing to develop technology that we can then deploy into space to prove these things on communication satellites. That's a big opportunity for us. So we're seeing opportunities from both government and commercial organizations that are interested in that. And 1 of the good points on put in for working with Space42 or their parent organization is G42, which is an AI company. So there's real interest in that community for some of these enabling technologies that we'll be able to advance.

This concludes the question-and-answer portion. I will now turn the call back to Mark Dankberg for closing remarks.

Okay. So I know that we've covered a lot. Thanks, everybody, for your attention, and stay tuned for a follow-up [ Bob ] as we described as if we can -- once we get all the Equatys agreements wrapped up, which we expect to be relatively near term, and we will follow through on that. We'll have a follow-on conversation just focused on Equatys. Thanks again for joining.

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.