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)