Space42, Viasat formally establish Equatys
September 15, 2026

By Chris Forrester



Mark Dankberg, Chairman and CEO at Viasat and Karim Michel Sabbagh (MD at Space42) were both on the industry leaders keynote stage at the Paris World Space Business Week and explained in some detail their joint plan for a new mega-constellation of up to 2,800 low Earth orbiting satellites.

The pair have committed to a binding commitment to investing up to $1 billion (€0.87bn) in” combined equity” as initial co-founders of Equatys.


Sabbagh and Dankberg set out the model behind that commitment. Equatys applies the Tower Company logic that scaled the terrestrial mobile industry: with participants sharing satellite and ground infrastructure while retaining their spectrum rights, their customers and their commercial independence.

Space42 and Viasat together hold agreements with more than 400 mobile operators and access to over 100 MHz of globally coordinated MSS spectrum, giving the platform reach to billions of unmodified devices.

Sabbagh placed those assets alongside Space42’s own business model, one company holding satellite communications, geospatial intelligence, and AI at platform level. He defined sovereignty as the ability to influence how technology evolves and to productise it for use, a mandate operators are increasingly asked to fulfil.

Sabbagh said: “With the signing of this agreement, Equatys takes off. For the first time, the satellite industry is building infrastructure the way the mobile industry thinks: shared, interoperable, standards-based, and designed for billions of devices rather than millions of subscribers. Space42 and Viasat have each brought what the other could not, and together we have assembled a differentiated capabilities system unique to the space industry. We have always known it was within our reach, and today we are proving it.”

“We are creating a new infrastructure category for global D2D and advanced MSS connectivity, backed by unique spectrum assets, significant committed capital, and a business model proven to scale the mobile industry. Finalising the formation of Equatys reflects our collective confidence in the strategic value and long-term financial merits of this venture to support a rapidly growing non-terrestrial market for emerging D2D NTN and advanced Mobile Satellite Services,” added Dankberg. “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, establish a scalable and interoperable architecture designed to support a full ecosystem of participants with choice and economies of scale, and deliver meaningful growth opportunities with attractive returns for investors and partners.”