After launching its first satellite in December 2019, the Kacific Broadband Satellites Group (Kacific) is now ready to support the commercial services of its Filipino partners by providing “high-throughput, low-cost broadband connectivity” in the Philippines.

Built by Boeing, Kacific1 was launched successfully aboard a SpaceX Falcon9 rocket. and has a 15-year service lifespan and will orbit above the Asia Pacific. It is the first regional high-throughput Ka-band satellite dedicated to providing reliable broadband that can be applied across many industries, including education, healthcare, e-government, enterprise, defense, and disaster and emergency scenarios in remote and rural communities.

“There are many places in the Asia Pacific that are still unconnected for various reasons such as lack of existing infrastructure, geographical challenges, and the high cost of such services,” said Christian Patouraux, founder and CEO, Kacific. “A High-Throughput Satellite (HTS) is ideal in addressing these challenges as it enables a broadband connection for places where cables struggle to reach. The Kacific1 sees opportunities in rural or remote areas in the Philippines where fixed-line broadband is currently slow or non- existent.”

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Kacific will sell its broadband capacity wholesale to licensed telecommunications providers, ISPs, governments, and other service providers that have suitable regulatory approval for deploying and selling Kacific bandwidth in the Philippines.

End-users will be able to connect to Kacific1 with small, low-cost, and maintenance-free satellite dishes, which can be transported easily to remote locations. Installed terminals can operate even in low levels of electric or solar power while terminals with dishes as small as 1 meter in diameter can achieve speed up to 100Mbps and higher.

Broadband signal

At present, Kacific supplies connectivity opportunities to remote schools and clinics in the Asia Pacific. In Vanuatu, Kacific has connected remote schools and given teachers and students a multimedia-rich resource library to learn from and opportunities to develop IT skills.

In remote villages in Timor Leste, Kacific’s broadband connection regularly supports remote nurses in seeking life-saving advice and hospital transport for patients. Kacific also powers its digital healthcare system, which has connected 75 clinics to improve the distribution of vital medicines, equipment, and patient information nationwide.

Before becoming available in the Philippines, the Kacific1 has started transmitting its Ka-band broadband signal covering more than 600 million people across 25 nations, including all islands in the Philippine archipelago.

Its range of services, including mobile backhaul, disaster, and emergency response, and broadband internet via small and easy-to-transport very small aperture terminal (VSAT) dishes, will serve as a catalyst for positive change in the improvement of the Philippines’ internet capabilities. By providing high-quality broadband in rural locations at a fraction of the current cost, the Kacific1 will allow more Filipinos to participate in the transformation toward a digital age for everyone.