Kizuna - The Fastest Internet From Space

Popular Science (www.popsci.com) recently included JAXA Kizuna Broadband Satellite as one of the Best of What’s New 2008 under the aviation and space category.  Below is the excerpt from the site;

Kizuna, launched by the Japanese space agency JAXA in February, will deliver to remote areas of Japan and Southeast Asia the fastest satellite Internet connections ever—up to 1.2 gigabits per second, or 500 times the average American consumer connection. Unlike previous satellites, Kizuna is powerful enough to supply industrial-speed signals to small, inexpensive antennas on the ground. Another first: It tracks the weather and adjusts signal strength for specific regions accordingly; for example, it will send a stronger signal to an area where it’s raining in order to penetrate the storm. jaxa.jp/projects/sat/winds

This is all well and good except that until now, everyone (except for those in the know) are still in the dark as to when this thing will actually start serving the Southeast Asian region.

Hey Kizuna guys! How about throwing us a bone and let us know when you’re actually going to go live? Our current providers are keeping us imprisoned here, c’mon, put us out of our misery.