NewSat did not yet release the name of the customer due to, “commercial and competitive reasons.”

   NewSat CEO Adrian Ballintine said the deal increases his company’s total binding pre-launch contracts for Jabiru satellite capacity to $601 million.

   “Afghanistan continues to have an insatiable appetite for communications, and our high throughput Ka-band satellite capacity is obviously hitting a sweet spot with our customers in the region,” Ballintine said in a statement.

   Lockheed Martin is now six months into building the Jabiru-1 satellite, which is scheduled for a 2014 launch with Arianespace.