ADB's first satellite financing to expand internet access in APAC
The Asian Development Bank has signed a $50 million agreement with Kacific Broadband Satellites International to provide satellite-based, high-speed broadband internet connections to countries in Asia and the Pacific.
The project, which represents ADB’s first satellite financing, will particularly focus on remote areas of small island nations in the Pacific and larger island nations like Indonesia and the Philippines.
The Asia-Pacific Remote Broadband Internet Satellite Project will help make broadband internet connections more widely available to countries in the region, where more than 2 billion people do not have reliable internet access due to inadequate infrastructure, geographical challenges, and the high cost of services.
The project will support the construction, launch, and operation of a shared geostationary earth orbit, high-throughput satellite. Kacific-1 is scheduled to be launched by SpaceX in December 2019 and will be operational in early 2020.
The financing comprises loans from ADB and the Leading Asia’s Private Infrastructure Fund (LEAP), which is administered by ADB. Established in March 2016 with support from the Japan International Cooperation Agency, LEAP is one of ADB’s cofinancing vehicles dedicated to private sector infrastructure in Asia and the Pacific. ADB will be working with GuarantCo to guarantee additional private cofinancing for the project
