Satelindo targets 14 new transponder contracts this year
Satelindo targets 14 new transponder contracts this year
JAKARTA (JP): Telecommunications company PT Satelit Palapa
Indonesia (Satelindo) has signed an agreement with Myanmar for a
five-year lease of the Palapa C-2 satellite's transponder, with
13 more contracts expected to be signed this year.
Satelindo's director for satellite services, Djoko Prajitno
said on Friday that Myawady TV, Myanmar's government-owned
television company, had signed a memorandum of understanding
earlier this month to lease one-quarter of a transponder from
Satelindo.
He declined to disclose the value of the contract but
Satelindo's president, USM Tampubolon, had earlier said that the
lease of one transponder costed about US$1.7 million a year.
Djoko said that 13 other local and foreign companies had
expressed interest in leasing Palapa C-2's transponders.
Nine companies planned to use the satellite for
telecommunications purposes while the rest for broadcasting, he
added.
"Malaysia's Cellcom is interested, so is Taiwan and China for
religious programs," Djoko said, adding that Satelindo was also
eying contracts from Indonesia's four new privately-owned
television stations.
The new television stations are Gramedia's TV7, Global TV,
LaTV, and TransTV.
Djoko said that Satelindo's satellite services were in high
demand as its coverage was currently the widest in the region
covering the Pacific rim, Iran and Vladivostok in the west and
Sydney and New Zealand in the south.
"We hold 100 percent of the broadcasting market in the
country," he said, explaining that the satellite was host to 55
local and foreign audio and video broadcasting companies.
A television station leasing a transponder from Satelindo
would automatically have access to more than 5 million viewers in
the Asia Pacific region including 3.5 million viewers in
Indonesia, Djoko said, adding that those were the numbers of
viewers in the region who had direct access to a satellite dish.
"So it's very convenient for new television stations, they
could guarantee their advertisers that at least 5 million people
would have access to the channel," he said.
The Palapa C-2 satellite was built by the California-based
Hughes Space & Communications (now Boeing Satellite Systems) for
Satelindo and another telecommunications company PT Pasifik
Satelit Nusantara (PSN).
It was launched into geostationary orbit on May 15, 1996, by
Arianespace using the Ariane 44L launcher and weighed 2,989
kilograms at liftoff.
The satellite is equipped with 30 C-band transponders,
including six onboard spares and four Ku-band transponders.
Djoko said that the satellite was currently at between 85
percent to 90 percent capacity and to keep up with growing
demand, Satelindo would sign an agreement with satellite operator
GE-Americon for the use of its GE-1A satellite's transponders.
"This way we could use GE-Americon's transponders for some of
our customers and they could use ours for some of their
customers. A bit like a joint marketing agreement," he said,
explaining that as the two satellites -- Palapa C-2 and GE-1A --
were placed at different positions in orbit so the customers
could choose which satellite suited them best.
Satelindo is also planning to launch a new Palapa C satellite
to backup and eventually replace the existing Palapa C-2 when it
expires in 2011.
Djoko said the contract for the manufacture of the satellite
was expected to be signed by 2003 and that it would take at least
five years to build.
He said that it was therefore impossible to launch the new
satellite in 2003, correcting his earlier statement reported by
The Jakarta Post on Thursday.(tnt)