Astranis, a San Francisco-based company with an alternative approach to providing Internet access from satellites, recently signed an agreement to provide specialized services in the Philippines, a first for the archipelago nation.

“They will use this capacity to connect hospitals, schools and other businesses, as well as create community Wi-Fi hubs,” Astranis CEO John Gedmark told CNBC.

“We estimate that up to 2 million people will be connected, who will have access to this broadband Internet that they didn’t have before,” Gedmark added.

The satellite, which will provide services in the Philippines, is scheduled to be launched in 2024. It represents the latest exercise in Astranis’ campaign to provide services to underserved communities around the world, with its first small satellite dedicated to serving “hundreds of thousands of people” in Alaskaand another upcoming satellite it should bring services to 3 million people in Peru.

Astranis will own and operate the satellite, with service provider Orbits Corp. will buy capacity through a long-term contract with local Philippine ISP HTechCorp. Astranis declined to elaborate on the financial details of the deal, but Gedmark emphasized that the service comes at a “very low price.”

The Philippines is home to more than 100 million people on more than 7,000 often mountainous islands. That makes broadband “one of their biggest challenges to date,” Gedmark said.

Astranis pointed to a recent one third party studies it is estimated that bringing broadband access to the Philippines, also known as “closing the digital divide”, would generate over $100 billion in economic value in the country by the end of this decade.

Astranis launched its first satellite in May. It is currently preparing to launch two more batches of satellites – which Astranis calls “Block 2” and “Block 3”. Block 2 will start in the fourth quarter and will contain four satellites, one of which is for Peru, and Block 3 will be launched in mid-2024 and it will include five satellites, one of which is for the Philippines.

The company is one of a number of next-generation broadband satellite systems in development as companies race to meet growing global demand for data – including SpaceX’s Starlink, Britain’s OneWeb, Amazons The Kuiper Project, AST SpaceMobile and more.

But the company’s approach represents a unique way to deliver broadband services from space, Gedmark previously said. The company’s dishwasher-sized satellite combines the small form factor of satellites such as Starlink in low Earth orbit with the distant, geosynchronous orbit of traditional players such as Viasat.

Geosynchronous orbit, or GEO, is about 22,000 miles from the planet’s surface — a position that allows the spacecraft to stay above a fixed point that matches Earth’s rotation.

Astranis will be able to “cover the entire Philippines with this single satellite,” noted Gedmark.