Arianespace remains upbeat on RI satellite market

By Tantri Yuliandini

HONG KONG (JP): Indonesia remains an important market for satellites despite the country's current economic troubles, according to a senior executive of the French-based satellite launch company Arianespace.

Arianespace vice president for sales, marketing and programs Philippe Berterottiere said given its specific geographic conditions, and its large population, Indonesia would continue to rely on satellites to support its fast growing telecommunications sector.

Only with the help of satellites will Indonesia be able to provide high quality telecommunications to its entire population, especially those in rural areas, Berterottiere said.

"Indonesia is a country of satellites and for satellites. It is the second country in the world with its own national communications satellite," Berterottiere said.

He was addressing the media at the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Telecom Asia 2000 conference and exhibition.

Arianespace was one of the exhibitors participating at the exhibition, held at Hong Kong's Convention and Exhibition Center in the Wanchai district from Dec. 4 to Dec. 9.

Berterottiere said Ariane was hopeful of winning a contract to launch three Indonesian satellites, including the Telkom-2 satellite for state-owned telecommunications company PT Telkom.

"This project has actually been talked about for quite sometime, but discussions have sort of cooled off, warmed up and cooled off again," Berterottiere said, adding that it seemed the Telkom-2 satellite launch project was now "close to coming back to life" again.

He declined to provide details of the potential projects, but said he was confident more projects from Indonesia would be available for the company in a couple of years time.

Indonesia had used the services of Arianespace three times in the past.

The first Indonesian satellite launched into orbit using the Ariane 44L launcher was the Palapa C2. The satellite, built for PT Satelindo and PT Pasifik Satelit Nusantara (PSN), was launched on May 15, 1996.

The 2,989-kilogram satellite was built by Hughes Space & Communications and equipped with 30 C-band transponders, including six onboard spares and four Ku-band transponders.

The Palapa C2 provides telecommunications services over the Indonesian archipelago, Southeast Asia and parts of China.

The second satellite launched for Indonesia, Cakrawarta-1, was made by the Orbital Sciences Corp. It was launched on Nov. 12, 1997, also with the Ariane 44L launcher.

Cakrawarta-1 was built for PT Media Citra Indostar and weighed 1,385 kilograms. It has five S-band transponders and provides direct TV broadcast services throughout the Indonesian archipelago.

The third satellite was the Telkom-1 for PT Telkom. Launched on Aug. 12, 1999, the satellite built by Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems weighed 2,655 kilograms at launch.

Equipped with 24 C-band and 12 extended C-band transponders, Telkom-1 provides a full suite of telecommunications services, from television and telephony to multimedia services.

The satellite mainly serves the Indonesian archipelago, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and northern Australia.

Berterottiere said that in Asia what mattered was connectivity, and satellites could get to customers faster than cables.

Asia Cellular Satellite's (ACeS) Garuda-1 satellite, orbiting at 22,300 miles above earth, provides the region with the world's first geo-mobile GSM compatible system.

The satellite's broad coverage and ability to feed an almost infinite number of receivers will give it a significant edge in delivering streaming video over the Internet, helping users avoid net congestion, Berterottiere said.

Currently there are six Indonesian telecommunications satellites in orbit. They are Telkom's Palapa B2R, Palapa B4 and Telkom-1; Satelindo's Palapa C1 and Palapa C2; and Media Citra Indostar's Cakrawarta-1.

Berterottiere said next year Arianespace would launch satellites for India and Japan.

Exhibition

More than 300 exhibitors from 30 countries took part in ITU's Telecom Asia 2000, filling 23,186 square meters of exhibition space, making it the largest regional Telecom event ITU has ever staged.

The buzz at the exhibition was third generation mobile systems and an enhancement of the global system for mobile communications (GSM) cellular standards, which includes greater bandwidth, more sophisticated compression techniques and the inclusion of in- building systems.

German mobile phone manufacturer Siemens introduced its prototype of a wireless-Java enabled mobile device, the first example of Siemens' recent integration of SUN Microsystems' Java platform in mobile phones and smart wireless devices.

Wireless Java integration will, in general, enable mobile phone users to use a vast number of applications directly from a server.

The Siemens handset, to be launched in summer 2001, will feature Kung Fu, a combat game adapted for the company by THQ.

Ericsson, a Swedish mobile company, presented its general packet radio service (GPRS) terminal, the Ericsson R520.

R520 features triple band (GSM 800/1800/1900), Chinese characters, GPRS, high-speed circuit switched data (HSCSD), bluetooth wireless technology and wireless application protocol (WAP).

GPRS is a common step for GSM to handle higher data speeds, making mobile data cheaper and faster, and bluetooth technology allows direct communications between a mobile phone and a personal digital assistant (PDA) without the need for cables and infrared.

"The GPRS terminal, communicating with the live GPRS network, can be kept in your pocket as you browse the Internet in the PDA communicating with the R520," the company said in a statement.

Ericsson said that in Asia Pacific, five operators have officially announced the introduction of Ericsson's GPRS network -- SmarTone Hong Kong, Singtel Singapore, Telstra Australia, China Unicom and Guangdong Mobile Communications Corporation.

Another big name in mobile phones, Motorola, showcased its Aspira architecture, an internet protocol (IP) based on a wireless total communications solution for 3G and beyond.

Aspira combines voice, data and multimedia into one broadband IP-based network.