US and South Korean satellite technology companies AscendArc and KT Sat have announced a partnership project on a high-throughput small geostationary (GEO) satellite for launch in 2027.

The project aims to connect 650 million underserved consumers in the Asia-Pacific through lowered costs of Internet access.

Beaverton, Oregon-based AscendArc will collaborate with KT Sat, the wholly-owned satellite arm subsidiary of Korea Telecom, also known as KT Group.

"Over half of the world’s population has very limited or no access to the Internet, and the primary reason is cost,” Young-soo Seo, CEO of KT Sat, said in a statement. “Access to the Internet has become a critical component of economic advancement, so our poorest citizens who are without it are simply being left behind."

Seo continued: "The cost of terrestrial fiber solutions has stagnated, and so there is too often a negative return on investment to deliver access to more remote or poor regions. And while some recent new satellite options have helped, they simply do not lower the cost enough to penetrate as far as needed. AscendArc stood out for its cost-efficiency, flexibility, and scalability. Our high-throughput satellite will serve as the cornerstone of regional expansion.”

KT Sat said that only 70 percent of Asia has access to some form of Internet, with 200 million citizens still unconnected, and millions more underserved with limited connection qualities.

AscendArc’s claim to cost efficiency is derived from its modular, assembly-line production model, which it believes results in the most cost-efficient satellites on the market, both in upfront costs and cost-per-mbps.

The companies’ choice of a single geosynchronous satellite is cheaper than a low-Earth constellation, covering the region it's designed for with a longer-lived satellite capable of being maintained in-orbit, or reprogrammed to serve new business needs as they change with the market.

Efforts to connect the unconnected usually make economic sense to governments more so than private markets, as economists predict national growth multiplier events as a result of bringing communities online.

In conventional markets, consumers without Internet access are unable to afford conventional connections and are unlikely to be able to pay for a satellite alternative on a permanent basis. Theoretically, underserved communities connected effectively for long enough will accumulate the income to afford their own services, but such policies require both public spending and the political discipline not to abandon the slow and costly process.

Many players speak of the opportunity for connection services in South East Asia, where many nations, such as Vietnam and Malaysia, are taking on the global manufacturing demand that made China rich in the 20th century, setting the stage for rapid industrialization and fast-growing demands in connectivity.

AscendArc is one of several players looking to deploy smaller satellites in GEO arcs, combining the lower costs and quicker iteration of lower orbit constellations with the greater coverage capabilities of higher orbits. Atsranis and Swissto12 are offering similar capabilities.