Singapore – 9 December 2013 – Kacific Broadband Satellites today announced plans to launch a Ka Band High Throughput Satellite (HTS) to provide enhanced broadband to 40 million people in the Pacific including the Pacific islands, New Zealand, eastern Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

The Pacific has the highest internet pricing and the highest Skype call prices on earth. Substandard, over-contended, 1 Mbps broadband services can cost more than US$700 per month in some territories. Estimated total potential demand for bandwidth by Pacific island states is 44 Gbps. Today just 20 percent, or less than 10 Gbps, is supplied. Kacific will sell wholesale bandwidth and anticipates that telcos and ISPs will offer it to end users at speeds of up to 10 Mbps and at price points as low as 5 percent of current costs. The service will be provided through small terminals costing just a few hundred dollars.

Kacific expects to commission its launch vehicle and payload in 2014 and to provide broadband services to the region by late 2016.

““By providing high quality broadband at a fraction of the current cost, we will allow a much larger part of the Pacific’s population to participate in the digital age,” says Kacific CEO Christian Patouraux. “With support from local governments and global institutions, that will foster greater internet usage on the island, fuelling economic growth.”