Zharyq Kazakhstan Partners with Rivada for Satellite Connectivity Across Central Asia

Kazakh operator, Zharyq, has signed a partnership with Rivada Space Networks to deliver secure satellite communications services across Central Asia and the Caucasus, becoming the latest regional provider to adopt Rivada's planned low Earth orbit (LEO) network.

The agreement will allow Zharyq to offer satellite connectivity services to government, enterprise, telecommunications and maritime customers across Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Azerbaijan. The companies are targeting organisations with high requirements for secure, resilient data communications, including defence, banking and critical infrastructure.

Rivada's planned Outernet constellation is designed to route traffic between satellites using optical inter-satellite links, allowing data to remain in space until it reaches its destination rather than passing through terrestrial gateways. The company says this architecture is intended to improve resilience, reduce latency over long-distance routes and support data sovereignty requirements for governments and multinational organisations.

The partnership adds to Rivada's growing list of regional distribution agreements as it prepares for commercial deployment of its network. The company says it has now secured more than US$20 billion in business commitments globally, reflecting continued demand for satellite connectivity focused on enterprise, government and security-sensitive applications rather than consumer broadband.