RI to operate regional mobile satellite

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)