Product: VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminals) Developers: Yoel Gat, Joshua Levinberg, Amiram Levinberg, Shlomo Tirosh and Gideon Kaplan Company: Gilat Satellite Networks Year of Foundation: 1987
Communication anytime, anywhere is no longer considered a luxury, but rather a necessity. People and businesses in the most remote locations in the world require continuous broadband connectivity. Many business professionals select their flights based on the high-speed inflight internet services they provide for uninterrupted work time. These conveniences, and many others, were developed by Gilat, a company that provides extensive communications coverage in the air, in the sea and on land, from the most densely populated areas to the most remote.
The company was founded in 1987 by five veterans of the Technological Unit in the IDF Intelligence Corps. They sought to address the needs at the time of businesses, banks, retail chains and others, who needed high-speed, continuous communications to run their businesses. The five men built satellite terminals equipped with small antennas (‘ dishes’), VSATs that combine RF technologies with network technologies – hardware and software.
The product was subsequently applied for low-cost rural telephony services, even in remote regions like the Andean Mountains. It was later developed as the foundation for the first bidirectional satellite internet service in the world and began serving private consumers in the US. Today, the product constitutes the basis for high-speed internet on commercial flights, and for the communications infrastructure of 4th generation (4G) cellular networks in the US, Japan, Australia, and other countries.
Gilat’s satellite communications provides high-speed internet – everywhere, all the time. It supplies connectivity to places where no other technology is feasible. One of the company’s main challenges today is supplying continuous internet connectivity to hundreds of passengers flying in a single aircraft, where conditions fluctuate throughout the flight. Gilat’s communication products are installed in passenger flights and include modems, antennas, and ground segment equipment, providing the highest rate of internet connectivity in the world today.
Gilat’s headquarters are located in Petach Tikva, Israel. Additional centers are situated in the US and Latin America, with many offices dispersed across the globe.
