The Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA) has advised the country’s government to allow businesses, communities and government agencies to install Kacific dishes pointing at its first satellite, Kacific1, which went into service last year.
Kacific1 has a number of spot beams, covering the Pacific islands, New Zealand, Indonesia and the Philippines, and an area of northern India, Bangladesh, Myanmar and the Himalayas.
In 2019 the company, Kacific Broadband Satellites, signed a 15-year agreement with a Tongan government company to provide high speed broadband via satellite to the island nation. Later that year a New Zealand broadband company, Gravity Internet, said it would use Kacific1 to offer rural services.
Now, at the far western end of the satellite’s footprint, Nepal is looking to benefit from faster internet at more affordable rates — especially the 23 million people who live in rural areas, away from terrestrial internet access technology. Users will need 1.2m diameter dishes and modems to provide service, Kacific is telling potential customers.
Last October Kacific announced plans to launch a second satellite. Kacific2 will add capacity to its largest, high-demand markets of Indonesia, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea, said the company, as well as expand its reach wider into south-east Asia and further into central and western Asia, and potentially eastern Africa.
