Kacific Places Order With Boeing for a High Throughput Satellite

Kacific closed a US$147 million financing round in late 2016 with a mix of equity, debt and customer prepayments which covers the purchase of the satellite, launch service, ground systems and all other project costs. To secure this funding, Kacific has signed 15 managed bandwidth wholesale agreements in 14 different countries for a total value of US$434 million.

Kacific-1 is designed to deliver uncontended broadband throughput via 57 Ka-band narrow beams, each having a capacity up to 1.25Gbps, with the highest signal power ever achieved in the region. The beams are selectively tailored to cover precise pockets of demand in a geographically dispersed footprint of 20 Pacific and South East Asian nations. Strategic positioning of the beams has enabled Kacific to sell capacity in 51 out of 57 beams so far, through take-or-pay contracts, with most beams exceeding 70 percent firm capacity bookings and several being almost saturated.

Kacific selected the Boeing 702 because it is a reliable High Throughput Satellite platform delivering strong economics and a consistent high-quality connectivity across all service beams.

“Boeing is pleased Kacific has chosen our flight-proven scalable 702 satellite for its next-generation broadband satellite service,” said Mark Spiwak, president of Boeing Satellite Systems International. “The capability and performance of the Boeing 702 satellite will enable Kacific to meet increasing demands for connectivity in the Asia-Pacific region, reaching new and underserved markets with reliable and cost-effective satellite internet services.”

“We do pure play broadband. We focus on direct-to-premise. We precisely place capacity where it is most needed,” said Christian Patouraux, Kacific CEO. “This will yield price points that will unleash internet participation and usage. With the launch of Kacific-1, in 2019, people in areas currently lacking affordable high speed internet will be able to access online education, healthcare and public services, and grow their local economies. Delivering internet speeds over 100 Mbps on low cost, small form factor terminals, will help connect the dots of South East Asia and the Pacific to the digital world.”