PSN to operate multimedia satellite by 1999
JAKARTA (JP): Publicly-listed PT Pasifik Satelit Nusantara (PSN) plans to operate a multimedia satellite by 1999.
The company's president, Adi Rahman Adiwoso, said yesterday that PSN selected Loral Corporation of the United States to manufacture the satellite. The satellite will be Indonesia's first home-phone spacecraft.
He said that PSN in January invited three spacecraft manufacturers -- Loral, Lockheed Martin and Hughes Space and Communications -- to bid for the project.
"Construction of the four-ton satellite began early this month. We expect to see the launching by the end of 1988 or in early 1999," he said, adding that PSN has yet to select a company to launch the satellite.
He said that even though the Palapa Pacific-3, as it will be called, will not have any transponders, its capacity will be equivalent to that of a satellite with 84 transponders.
"The multimedia satellite, worth approximately US$300 million, will provide various services, including telephone lines, data and figure communications, television and other telecommunications services," Adiwoso said.
"People intending to use its service will have to install an antenna with a height of about five meters. We will charge the same installation fees charged by state-owned PT Telkom for a new fixed telephone line."
He said that the utilization fee will range between 5 U.S. cents and 10 cents per minute.
He said that the satellite's facility will cover Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Indochina, Japan/South Korea and the Philippines.
"The telecommunications industry in Indonesia has grown significantly. I expect that there will be an estimated 50 million telephone lines in the country by 2005," he said.
Indonesia currently has some four million telephone lines. The government plans to install 7.7 million more lines by 1999, consisting of 6.7 million fixed-telephone lines and one million mobile telephones.
Adiwoso said that the planned Palapa Pacific-3 satellite, which will orbit at 134 degrees east longitude, will accelerate the development of the telecommunications industry in Indonesia.
Nasdaq
PSN is listed on the Nasdaq capital market in the United States. Its shareholders include Telkom (with a share ownership of 22.57 percent), PT Elektrindo Nusantara, a subsidiary of the Bimantara Group (21.12 percent), PT Primaupaya Lintasswara (10.4 percent), PT Skaisnetindo Teknotama (14.31 percent), PT Mutuprima Abadi (1.62 percent), Hughes (7.23 percent) and Telesat Canada (7.23 percent). As a custodian, the state-owned Bank Dagang Negara owns a 15.52 percent stake in PSN.
The company provides satellite-based communication services within the Asia-Pacific region using 12 transponders in the Palapa-C1 and the Palapa-C2 satellites and 24 in the Palapa Pacific-2.
The Palapa Pacific-1 and Palapa Pacific-2 were previously owned by Telkom.
Joining with the Philippines Long Distance Telephone Co. of the Philippines and Jasmine International Public Co. Ltd. of Thailand, PSN has set up PT Asia Cellular Satellite System (ACeS), a Jakarta-based telecommunications firm which will offer mobile-satellite-based cellular telecommunications. The system will use a Garuda satellite and be the first of its kind in Asia when in service in 1999. (icn)