Telkom eyes regional transponder market

Telkom eyes regional transponder market

JAKARTA (JP): State-owned publicly listed company PT
Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) aims to control the domestic
and Asian-Pacific market of transponder leases from the Telkom-1
satellite this year.

Telkom vice president of communications Dodi Amarudien was
quoted by Bisnis Indonesia as saying that the company could still
increase its share of the Asia-Pacific market for transponder
lease.

"We hope the Telkom-1 satellite can control the Asia-Pacific
market," he said.

He said he was confident that Telkom would be able to beat its
competitors from the Philippines, Thailand, and other satellite
owners in the Asia Pacific region.

Telkom-1, specially developed to replace the Palapa-B2R
satellite, is a three-axis satellite with 36 transponders,
comprising of 24 C-Band transponders and 12 Extended C-Band
transponders. The communication satellite was launched from
French Guiana in August.

The Telkom-1 has a higher transmitted power than the Palapa-
B2R, which means better quality signals and makes it possible to
use smaller dish antennas, thus lowering terminal costs.

Telkom-1 covers Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam,
Singapore, Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines,
Laos, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Papua New Guinea and northern Australia.

Telkom is eying Internet provider companies, new privately
owned television companies soon to operate in Indonesia and
companies with satellite needs to lease its transponders, Dodi
said.

Telkom provides domestic telecommunications services and
operates the sole national public switched telephone network.

It currently operates telephone, satellite transponder, telex,
telegram, leased line, VSAT, e-mail, and voice messaging
services.

Telkom lists 1.16 billion shares on the Jakarta and Surabaya
stock exchanges, and 9.33 billion internationally on the New York
and London Stock Exchanges. (10)