Tongasat

Tāufaʻāhau Tupou, intrigued partially because of Tonga's poor communication systems, set up a formal meeting with Nilson in November 1987.

In April 1988, the Tongan government authorized the company, officially established as the Friendly Islands Satellite Communications Inc[2][3] and registered on 13 February 1989.

[1] Tongasat's goal was to both profit commercially from the slots and to create a regional network in the Pacific to promote satellite operation.

[1] After years of opaque finances supporting Salote Pilolevu Tuita, in 2009 the company paid back its debts to the Tongan government.

[1] In October 1991, Unicom Satellite Corporation licensed two orbital slots from Tongasat, but failed to obtain the necessary funds to start operations.

[1] In February 1994, Nilson was fired from Tongasat after an audit uncovered his ownership of Rimsat shares, a clear conflict of interest.

[1] The United States, China, Asianet, and PT Pasifik Satelit Nusantara all claimed or occupied slots from Tongasat against its wishes.

PT Pasifik Satelit Nusantara and the Indonesian government had a long-lived dispute with Tongasat; after multiple summits, they came to a conclusion to share the slot.

[1] On 15 April 2002 Tongasat started its own telecommunications industry when it obtained the Esiafi 1 [pt] satellite, previously named Parallax and before that Comstar 4d (launched in 1981), that was moved to Tonga's own geostationary point at 70° East.