Acquired by SageNet in 2014, Spacenet, Inc. was a provider of

VSAT A very-small-aperture terminal (VSAT) is a two-way satellite ground station with a satellite dish, dish antenna that is smaller than 3.8 meters. The majority of VSAT antennas range from 75 cm to 1.2 m. Bit rates, in most cases, range from 4 ...

satellite-based data network services as well as hybrid satellite/terrestrial networks and network management services. Spacenet was headquartered in

Tysons Corner Tysons, also known as Tysons Corner, is a census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, spanning from the corner of SR 123 (Chain Bridge Road) and SR 7 (Leesburg Pike). It is part of the Washington metropolitan are ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

.Tysons Corner CDP, Virginia
." ''

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

''. Retrieved on May 7, 2009. Spacenet's primary business was providing VSAT and hybrid/terrestrial data network services to government and enterprise customers under the Connexstar brand. Spacenet's enterprise/government VSAT services are used for a wide range of applications such as primary broadband or narrowband networks, disaster recovery/backup networks and multicast file delivery. Beginning in 2006, it partnered with

Cisco Systems Cisco Systems, Inc. (using the trademark Cisco) is an American multinational corporation, multinational digital communications technology conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, m ...

as the service provider for th
Cisco IP VSAT Satellite Network WAN Module
in the United States. It held around 25% market share in the enterprise VSAT marketplace, according to the ''Comsys'' 2005 industry study. As of 2007, Spacenet equipment and services were in use at about 100,000 enterprise, government, residential and small office sites.

History

The company was founded in 1981 as Southern Pacific Communications Corporation (SPCC), a sister company to Sprint, providing satellite links for voice connections. The company was acquired by

GTE GTE Corporation, formerly General Telephone & Electronics Corporation (1955–1982), was the largest independent telephone company in the United States during the days of the Bell System. The company operated from 1926, with roots tracing furth ...

in 1983 and grew into a worldwide satellite operator and services provider (including launching the first North American K_u band satellite, Spacenet 1). It went through several acquisitions over the next 15 years, absorbing AT&T Tridom and Contel ASC. GTE Spacenet was sold to

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

American Communications in 1994. AT&T sold the Tridom Corporation to Spacenet in 1997. In 1998, GE Americom sold Spacenet's North American operations to VSAT terminal manufacturer Gilat Satellite Networks for $227.5 million in stock and spun the satellite assets off into GE Americom (which later became part of SES). In March 2005, Gilat wholly acquired

StarBand StarBand was a two-way satellite broadband Internet service available in the U.S. from 2000–2015. StarBand ceased operations effective September 30, 2015 citing increased competition from other internet providers. The StarBand satellite Internet ...

, the first two-way consumer satellite ISP in the United States, and merged StarBand's operations into Spacenet. Andreas Georghiou became CEO of Spacenet the following year, in 2006. Under Georghiou, Spacenet acquired

Chantilly, Virginia Chantilly is a census-designated place (CDP) in western Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. The population was 24,301 as of the 2020 census. Chantilly is named after an early-19th-century mansion and farm, which in turn took the name of an ...

-based managed network services provider CICAT Networks in 2011. In 2012, president and chief operating officer Glenn Katz became CEO of Spacenet, replacing Andreas Georghiou. Following a loss of $2 million on $77 million in revenues in 2012 and faced with uncertainty about future spending by the U.S. Department of Defense, Gilat Satellite Networks sold Spacenet Inc. to Tulsa, Oklahoma-based managed network solutions provider SageNet for $16 million in 2013. SageNet CEO Daryl Woodard replaced Glenn Katz as CEO of the new combined company in 2014, with Brad Wise becoming president. Spacenet was wholly absorbed into SageNet by the end of 2014 and became solely a brand name for SageNet's satellite services.

Satellite fleet

References

{{Reflist

External links

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Spacenet website
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Spacenet history
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Telecommunications companies of the United States Companies based in McLean, Virginia Telecommunications companies established in 1981 1981 establishments in Virginia 2014 mergers and acquisitions