Expanding on its life-saving humanitarian projects around the world, the colossal satellite operator SES is now racing to beam high-speed Wi-Fi connections to rescue workers across flood-devastated Nepal, on the Roof of the World. Shown here is Mount Ama Dablam, in the Mount Everest region of Nepal. (Photo by PRAKASH MATHEMA/AFP via Getty Images)
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Expanding on its life-saving humanitarian projects around the world, the colossal satellite operator SES is now racing to beam high-speed Wi-Fi connections to government rescue workers across flood-devastated Nepal.
With a long history of speeding critical satellite internet services into ground zeros triggered by hurricanes or earthquakes along the American coast and in the Caribbean, the leaders of SES know that every second counts when providing broadband to first responders and victims in the aftermath of a catastrophe.
“Satellite-enabled connectivity can be rapidly deployed to support voice and data communications during emergency situations,” says Sueh Li Som, an SES director based in Singapore.
With the rush to help Nepal recover, she told me in an interview, SES is sprinting to strengthen “communications between disaster response teams operating in affected regions and government authorities coordinating response efforts from Kathmandu,” Nepal’s colorful, centuries-old capital.
Nepal is surrounded by some of the tallest peaks on the planet, making rescues from disasters hitting remote mountainous regions arduous. (Photo by JEWEL SAMAD/AFP via Getty Images)
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“SES is providing satellite capacity over Nepal,” she says, “enabling reliable communications links in areas where terrestrial infrastructure may be unavailable, damaged, or difficult to access.
The Hong Kong-based PCCW, or Pacific Century Cyber Works, a telecommunications and television broadcasting titan, and its local partner “are responsible for providing the ground equipment and connectivity services that leverage this satellite capacity.”
Together, this SES team is providing emergency response and coordination channels for Nepal’s Disaster Management Office in Kathmandu and its rescuers spread out across the regions that fell victim to gigantic floods or landslides.
The Luxembourg-based SES, which recently merged with the American titan Intelsat, can tap its combined fleet of sophisticated, leading-edge satellites to support the Nepalese government’s race to provide emergency shelters, mobile hospitals, and makeshift schools and habitats to victims of the deluge, apparently triggered by the bursting of a nearby glacier.
SES can tap its fleet of sophisticated, leading-edge satellites to support the Nepalese government’s race to provide emergency shelters, mobile hospitals, and makeshift schools and habitats to victims of the deluge.
Image courtesy of MAXAR and Intelsat
Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey reported that on “26 August 2026, a catastrophic debris flow and flood was likely triggered by rapid slope failure involving a glacier in Langtang National Park, Nepal, near the border with China.”
The flash flood “travelled nearly 100 kilometers and impacted populated areas downstream,“ they added, and even hit a border post between China and Nepal.
“USGS geologists are mapping the inundation boundary of the debris flow and flood by using satellite imagery.”
“Imagery analysis indicates many buildings and infrastructure have likely been buried or destroyed, including a vital highway connecting China and Nepal.”
“Our primary focus,” they reported, “is supporting response and recovery efforts through hazard mapping using satellite imagery.”
Sueh Li Som told me SES satellites deployed in Nepal’s high-speed restoration campaign can likewise “provide broadband connectivity for government agencies, emergency responders, and other critical stakeholders when resilient, always-available communications are needed during natural disasters and recovery operations.”
Many of SES’s top-ranking leaders are tech philanthropists, including its CEO Adel Al-Saleh. Just weeks ago, the spacecraft outfit rushed to activate its satellite over Colombia, in the wake of a powerful earthquake, and to provide free services for national rescue operations across the country.
Four years ago, right after Moscow started firing off its missiles to destroy Ukraine’s telecommunications towers and internet infrastructure during a lightning invasion, SES teamed up with the utopian tech group Help.NGO to rush satellite terminals into the blitzed country. Adel Al-Saleh told me in an earlier interview that SES would push forward the campaign to keep Ukrainians plugged into the Web into the future.
When Russia started firing off its missiles and deploying Su-34 fighter jets to bomb Ukraine’s telecommunications infrastructure and cultural icons, SES sped laptop-size satellite terminals into the blitzed country to plug it back into the Web. (Photo by KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP via Getty Images)
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Meanwhile, an array of humanitarian aid organizations are converging on Nepal to help map out its recovery.
One group, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, estimates more than 90,000 people have been injured and/or displaced during the disaster, with many homes destroyed, bridges washed away and mountainside roads damaged, cutting off some of the worst-affected communities.
The Red Cross Federation has launched an emergency appeal to raise 25 million Swiss francs to bolster the Nepal Red Cross Society’s drive to limit the after-effects of the deadly flash floods.
The UN group UNICEF has dispatched rescue workers and doctors to Nepal, and aims to provide children with shelters, medical treatment, household supplies, and clean drinkable water, and to reunite families. (Photo by Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
NurPhoto via Getty Images
The worldwide appeal is aimed at supporting not only Nepal’s short-term emergency measures, but also its long-term recovery.
“While we are getting a clearer picture of the scale of devastation, we know that entire villages were washed away and needs will grow in the coming hours and days,” said IFRC Secretary General Jagan Chapagain.
“We call on the international community to show solidarity in the months to come,” Chapagain added.
The UN group UNICEF has likewise dispatched its rescue workers and doctors to Nepal, and aims to provide children with shelters, medical treatment, household supplies, and clean drinkable water, and to reunite families.
Like the Red Cross Federation, UNICEF welcomes donations from philanthropists around the world to finance its globe-spanning rescue and recovery missions.
Long-term, UNICEF collaborates with disaster-hit communities to strengthen medical systems and schools to become more resilient to extreme weather events and against the ever-mounting dangers of climate change.
Meanwhile, scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey studying the glacier breakup from satellite imagery say: “The slope failure involving a glacier generated energy equivalent to a M5.2 earthquake.”
“A second seismic event was recorded approximately 3 hours later, generating energy equivalent to a M4.2 earthquake.”
“A landslide incorporating part of a glacier or a glacial collapse,” they said, created “a fast-moving, far-traveled landslide and flood laden with boulders and other rubble.”
As Nepalis press the government to create multi-tiered preparations to better counter natural disasters, Prajjwol Gautam, a software engineer who formerly worked at SpaceX, published an Op-Ed in the Kathmandu Post calling for official backing for satellite internet connections to cover the great swaths of citizens who are still trapped on the other side of the “digital divide.”
“According to the 2021 census, fewer than a quarter of rural municipalities have home internet access, and the figure is even lower among the poorest households,” Gautam reported.
“In a country where earthquakes and landslides can sever physical lines in seconds, satellite internet is not a luxury. It is resilience infrastructure. It is telemedicine for remote clinics, real-time disaster coordination in the high hills, and the means by which our mountain communities can participate in the digital economy they helped build. The technology is ready. The demand is clear.”
Asked about these calls for rapid adoption of satellite broadband for the Himalayan regions of Nepal that are too remote to connect via a fiber-optic network, Sueh Li Som says: “Nepal has made meaningful progress in advancing digital in recent times, while continuing to prioritize broader access to communications services across the country.”
“At the same time, the country’s mountainous terrain and dispersed populations create connectivity challenges that are difficult to address through terrestrial infrastructure alone.”
“This is where satellite technology can add significant value by extending connectivity to locations that may otherwise remain underserved.”
“As demand for connectivity continues to grow, Nepal represents a market where satellite-enabled services can complement existing networks and contribute to broader efforts to bridge the digital divide, enhance resilience, and support economic development.”
While Nepal features some of the highest peaks in the world with the Himalayas, which also soar across Tibet and India, broadband Wi-Fi connections can be beamed by satellite to any of these summits, says Chaitanya Bodhe, an SES executive based in India.
“In principle, satellite-based internet connectivity can be provided on Mount Everest, or virtually anywhere in Nepal, provided users have access to a suitable satellite terminal with a clear line of sight to the satellite,” he told me in an interview.
While Nepal features some of the highest peaks in the world with the Himalayas, which also soar across Tibet and India, broadband Wi-Fi connections can be beamed by satellite to any of these summits, says Chaitanya Bodhe, an SES executive based in India. (Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)
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