Online journal covers Indonesia's telecommunications development

Both Indonesian people and foreigners alike are unlikely to know that the world's largest archipelagic country was the first in the developing world to launch its own domestic satellite communications.

The satelite launch in 1976 and the subsequent development of the country's communications industry is one of many subjects covered by the eighth edition of the Online Journal of Space Communication.

Tracking the country's development of space communications technology from the launch of the Palapa satelite, owned by then state telecommunications company Perumtel, to the massive proliferation of telecommunications technology as indicated by the presence of 10 national TV channels and a number of private telephone operating companies, the edition is a comprehensive review of the country's development of telecommunications technology.

A number of satellite scholars and professionals, including telecommunications expert-cum-politician Marwah Daud Ibrahim and former program manager for the first Palapa satelite and telecommunication professor of the Bandung's Institute of Technology (ITB) Arnold Ph. Djiwatampu serve as contributors in the publication.

Acting as chair of an editing team for the publication is Putut Widjanarko, a PhD candidate at Athens-based Ohio University.

A guest editor for the edition is Sukarno Abdulrahman, chairman of the Indonesian Telematics Society.

The Online Journal of Space Communication is an international electronic journal on telecommunications technology, a project of the New York-based Society for Satelite Professionals International.

The Journal is hosted and editorially managed by the Institute for Telecommunications Studies at Ohio University.

In its past editions, the online publication has discussed a variety of themes ranging from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)'s advanced telecommunication satelite, satelite remote sensing and satelite security to satelite communications in Canada. -- JP.

Online Journal: http://satjournal.tcom.ohio.edu/issue8/main.html