Kacific seeks to connect the Pacific islands with high speed satellite broadband. Photo: Kacific

[Via Satellite 09-08-2014] Kacific Broadband Satellites has signed a cooperation agreement with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for the development of satellite communications capacity and emergency communications solutions for the Pacific region. The project will establish 55 fully equipped e-centers to service communities in remote islands or rural areas in Kiribati, Micronesia, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Fiji, Marshall Islands, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Nauru and Tonga. The e-centers will all have satellite connectivity for development and emergency telecommunication.

Kacific pledged to donate a total of 50Mbps of dedicated bandwidth for a full year to the 11 Pacific Island countries, complemented by 40 terminals. The total value of the donation surpasses $380,000. ITU, as the implementing United Nations agency, will carry out the project in cooperation with the International Telecommunication Satellite Organization (ITSO), Kacific and the other implementation partners Intelsat and Inmarsat. ITU is providing seed funding of $500,000 and ITSO is providing $100,000 for capacity building.