Pan Asiasat launches Rainbow Internet access
Pan Asiasat launches Rainbow Internet access
JAKARTA (JP): The Hong Kong-based Pan Asiasat Media Ltd marked
its debut in the Indonesian Internet industry on Tuesday with the
launching of "Rainbow", a service that offers Internet users
high-speed Internet access via satellite connection.
The company said it had invested a total of US$50 million in
Indonesia to develop its business in information technology and
telecommunication here.
"Indonesia is a potential market with Internet users reaching
890,000 in 1999 and with an estimated 2.4 million users by 2004,"
Pan Asiasat chairman Patrick D Cheung said in a press statement.
As its market, the company targets, among others, hotels,
apartments, shopping and office centers, Internet cafes,
commercial buildings and real estates.
Pan Asiasat said it planned to win 20,000 customers in its
first year of operation.
"It's the first company in Indonesia that is offering an
integrated satellite communication...which would help end-users
(customers) get fast and comprehensive service under a
competitive price," Pan Asiasat said.
The company said it is offering an integrated satellite
connection that could bypass existing telephone lines to access
the Internet.
While current telephone-based Internet connection limits users
to a bandwidth of 56 kilobytes per second (Kbps), "Rainbow" can
boost access speed to up to 6 megabytes per second (Mbps),
according to the company.
"Bad infrastructure can create a bottleneck, which would slow
down Internet access," Pan Asiasat's technical director Itjuk
Tjugiarto said.
The high-speed Internet access is called broadband Internet
access and is useful for downloading large multimedia files like
music, video and graphics.
Pan Asiasat said it was using the Telkom-1 satellite of the
state telecommunication firm PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia to cover
the Indonesian area.
Aside from Pan Asiasat, earlier this year giant business group
Lippo also launched its broadband Internet access service under
Kabelvision. But instead of using satellite connection,
Kabelvision uses fiber-optic cable connection.
Both companies charge customers a monthly flat rate of
approximately $50 for 24-hour a day access.
Pan Asiasat is also offering other services such as developing
e-commerce applications, web hosting and a portal for Wireless
Application Protocol (WAP) enabled cellular phones.(bkm)