Indosat plans to use more submarine cables in future
Indosat plans to use more submarine cables in future
JAKARTA (JP): Publicly listed state-owned telecommunications
company PT Indosat will boost the use of submarine cables to
support its future transmission activities.
Indosat planning and engineering general manager Djoko
Prajitno said submarine cables were more favorable due to their
durability, cost effectiveness and higher transmission quality.
A concentration of submarine cables, however, would not
necessarily terminate the company's use of satellite transmission
facilities, he said.
"We are going to continue leasing some circuits of the
Intelsat satellite, but it will be used more as a backup for the
submarine cables," he said.
Indosat was utilizing submarine cables more than the
satellite, he said, adding that around 75 percent of the
company's current telecommunications products and services were
supported by submarine cables.
He said submarine cables had a higher bandwidth capacity,
faster and clearer transmission, a longer service life of up to
25 years and more economic value.
Satellite circuits had limited frequency, slower transmission,
were sensitive to weather change and had a maximum 15-year life,
he said.
"The only advantage satellites have that cable does not is
global coverage. Submarine cables are good for regional
coverage ... that's why we have to participate in many regional
and international cable projects," he said.
Indosat manager of planning and engineering for submarine
cables, Marwan Batubara, said the company had invested more on
international consortiums to install submarine cables worldwide
than on leasing satellite circuits.
About 80 percent of the company's investment funds were used
to finance international and regional submarine cable projects,
he said, adding that Indosat was so far involved in the
development of 19 submarine cable projects.
"That's why we are not interested in developing satellites
like other telecommunication companies here have done," he said.
One of the projects, the SEA-ME-WE 3, which links the Middle
East, Southern Asia, Australia and Western Europe regions,
commenced its commercial operation last month, he said.
He said Indosat, which invested about US$48 million in the
$1.4 billion submarine cable project, had direct access to the
cables because it spent much more money in building a landing
point for the network in its area.
The other projects include the SEA-ME-WE 2, a project linking
Southern Asia and the Middle East in which Indosat holds a 3.3
percent stake valued at about $20 million, and the APCN-1, a
project linking countries in Asia-Pacific regions with Indosat's
investment reaching $20 million as well.
Marwan said Indosat would continue investing in other
submarine cable projects. The company is considering to invest in
the SAFE project, which will link countries in Southern Africa to
those in Eastern Asia, and the APCN-2.
He said it was unlikely Indosat would participate in the
Oxygen cable project, which is currently being prepared by other
state-owned telecommunications companies PT Telkom and PT
Satelindo, due to the project's uncertain schedule and lack of
feasibility. (cst)