NewSat Ltd shares have risen 2.5 per cent after the company signed a $30 million deal to provide communications coverage in Afghanistan.

The satellite, broadband and communications services provider said a South Asian reseller had agreed to pay $US30.3 million ($A30.56 million) for three years of services in Afghanistan.

NewSat chief executive Adrian Ballintine said the deal took the total binding pre-launch contracts for Jabiru satellite capacity to $US601 million ($A606.06 million).

“Afghanistan continues to have an insatiable appetite for communications, and our high throughput Ka-band satellite capacity is obviously hitting a sweet spot with our customers in the region,” Mr Ballintine said in a statement on Thursday.

He said Lockheed Martin was now six months into building the Jabiru-1 satellite and it was on schedule for a 2014 launch with Arianespace.

“Export credit debt funding continues to progress extremely well,” he said.

NewSat also said it could not yet release the name of its customer due to “commercial and competitive reasons”.

The company has contracts with governments, corporations and private enterprises.

As Australia’s largest specialist satellite communications company, NewSat says it has the ability to provide internet, voice, data and video communications coverage via satellite to 75 per cent of the globe using 12 satellites.

It currently provides broadband services in the Kimberley region of WA.

Last year, the company announced it had struck a deal to acquire seven orbital slots to accommodate satellites.

At the close of trade on Thursday, NewSat shares were 1.27 per cent higher at 80 cents.