RI to operate regional mobile satellite

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia will offer regional mobile satellite telecommunication services in cooperation with other countries within the Asia-Pacific region, an executive said.

"We are discussing this with companies from several countries in the region and the final decision on partnership will hopefully be established in August," the president of PT Pasifik Satelit Nusantara (PSN), Adi Rahman Adiwoso, told reporters after delivering his presentation at a telecommunications business seminar yesterday.

He said that after the establishment of the cooperation, the companies involved will immediately order the construction of a communications satellite from one of the three satellite producers in the United States.

According to Adiwoso, three companies in the world can produce satellites with a large coverage capacity; Hughes Aircraft Company, G.E. Martin Maritta Astro and Loral, all of which are U.S. firms.

He said that the idea of developing mobile satellite telecommunications in the region started early last year.

"The government has agreed to the idea and the planned satellite will likely be placed at 80.5, 118, 123.5 or 135 degrees in geo-stationary orbit," he said, adding that the satellite will be able to serve about one million subscribers.

He said that the cost of the project, estimated at between US$800 and US$900 million, will be shared among the members in the partnership.

"A contract for the satellite construction will likely be signed in December," Adiwoso said, "The construction is expected to be completed within three years."

PSN, operating in satellite management, is 40 percent owned by Telkom, 30 percent by PT Electrindo Nusantara, 10 percent by Adiwoso and another PSN executive, Iskandar Alisjahbana, 10 percent by Hughes of the United States and 10 percent by Telesat of Canada.(icn)