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Mon, 30 Sep 1996

JP/Indosat to set up new ground network

Indosat to set up new ground network

JAKARTA (JP): The state-owned international telecommunications provider PT Indosat will set up a new ground satellite network in Gresik, East Java to support the telecommunications services of the international organization Inmarsat.

Indosat president Tjahjono Soerjodibroto said on Saturday the planned network will be used to facilitate the satellite-based Personal Communications Services to be run by an Inmarsat affiliate, I-CO Global Communications Ltd., in Indonesia.

I-CO was established by the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization, known as Inmarsat, which provides mobile communications for ships at sea, aircraft and land users. It owns and operates a number of telecommunications satellites.

Indosat has also set up a company, PT Indokomsat Lintas Dunia, to manage the business of I-CO in the country.

"The network could be an earth station or gateway. We will decide after a meeting between Indosat and Inmarsat in Jakarta later next week," Tjahjono said on Saturday.

Indosat has spent US$12.87 million to acquire a 1.41 percent stake in I-CO, which will launch a global mobile satellite system in 2000. The system, set to use 10 satellites, will permit mobile voice and data communications through hand-held telephones anywhere in the world, on land, sea or air.

When in service, the I-CO operations in Indonesia will compete with PT Asia Cellular Satellite System (ACeS), a consortium of three companies from Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, which will provide a similar service in late 1998 or early 1999. ACeS will use two satellites, each weighing 2.6 tons, in serving the Asia region.

Indosat, which is listed on the Jakarta and New York stock exchanges, also has a Jakarta-Surabaya submarine cable network with a gateway in Banyuurip, Gresik to facilitate telecommunications services in the country's eastern provinces. The company also operates International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (Intelsat) earth stations supported by 564 satellite telephone circuits via a new earth station at its Banyuurip gateway. (icn)