Kacific satellite goes where other broadband can't

If you think wireless latency is bad, wait until you try satellite.

Patrick Smellie writes for BusinessDesk:

The Pacific Islands, remote parts of rural New Zealand and poor but populous parts of eastern Indonesia and Papua New Guinea are target markets for a new satellite-based project that its backers say will bring low-cost, ultra-fast broadband to areas that are too expensive to reach by cable.

This sounds like an ideal service for remote locations.

Yet Kacific will not replace terrestrial or fixed wireless broadband services where people have less exotic alternatives.

Respectable, not exciting speeds

Calling satellite broadband ultra-fast, is pushing it. Although the speeds are respectable.

Each of the 57 Ka-band narrow beams from the Kacific satellite have a capacity of 1.25 Gbps. The company’s website says it can deliver up to 100 mbps to buildings.

And then there’s satellite latency – the time signals take for a round trip.

Kacific is a wholesaler, so it’ll sell in New Zealand through partners. There are plenty of businesses here that are far enough off the beaten track to need satellite broadband.