France Telecom put its satellite mobile communications business up for sale in 2005, and Norwegian incumbent telecom operator Telenor followed suit few months later, putting Telenor Satellites Services on the block. A private equity firm acquired both businesses within weeks of one another and decided to merge them to leverage the good fit between their technologies, coverage areas and expertise.

We were to come up with a name for a new company staffed by people who were previously competitors, working in the shadow of their parent company’s powerful brands. The two service offerings then had to be combined into one well-organized expertise portfolio.

Dragon Rouge proposed the brand Vizada, which was available worldwide and thus in keeping with the core idea of “borderless communication”: indeed, satellite communication goes beyond the borders of countries and their GSM networks. Vizada derives from the Sanskrit word for “pure”. This reference to an ancient language is a reminder that in the past, languages were spoken across entire continents, not just countries. The name also brings to mind the modern version of freedom of movement in a world without visas…