Gilat Telecom

Gilat Satellite Networks was founded in 1987 by brothers Joshua and Amiram Levinberg, Yoel Gat, Shlomo Tirosh, Arik Keshet, and Gideon Kaplan. In its early days, Gilat struggled to compete with larger and better-established companies the likes of EchoStar.In 1998, Gilat was involved in founding Global Village Telecom , a company that built a satellite-based phone network for remote locations in South America using the VSAT technology that was developed by Gilat. During 1998 and 1999 GVT won tenders to build rural phone networks in Colombia, Chile and PeruIn 2000, Gilat introduced an innovation involving VSAT technology allowing remote locations, such as the Havasupai Reservation in Arizona and rural communities in Brazil, to access the internet at high speeds. In February 2000, Gilat and Microsoft announced that they are co-developing a two-way satellite broadband service for consumer purposes. The satellite service delivered Internet connections at speeds of up to 1.5 Mbps and did not require a second telephone line. A new company, Gilat-To-Home, was established to deliver the broadband two-way satellite service and Microsoft took an initial 26 percent stake in the company with an investment of US$50 million. In September 2000, Gilat-To-Home changed its name to StarBand Communications and received an investment of $50 million from EchoStar, who received an equity stake of 32 percent in StarBand.In 2011, Gilat announced the creation of a new division, headed by Brigadier General Moshe Tamir, expanding its presence in the U.S. defense market.