Thaicom-6/Africom-1 is located at the prime orbital position of 78.5° East and is co-located with Thaicom-8. The satellite will carry 18 active C-band and 8 active Ku-band high powered transponders and provides broadcast and data services over Sub-Saharan Africa and South-East Asia including DTH, Video Distribution, Mobile Backhaul and IP Trunking services.

Thaicom selected satellite builder Orbital Sciences Corp. (Orbital ATK – Northrop Grumman) and launch-services provider SpaceX for the construction and launch of the 3,000 kgs heavy Thaicom-6 satellite.

Thaicom-6’s African capacity, six C-band transponders each with 72MHz bandwidth, is marketed as Africom-1.