Telkom inks deal for new satellite by 2004
Telkom inks deal for new satellite by 2004
Fitri Wulandari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Publicly listed state telecommunications company PT Telkom
has appointed U.S.-based, space systems company Orbital Sciences
Corporation (Orbital) to build Telkom's first communications
satellite since 1999.
Named TELKOM-2, the satellite will cover Indonesia and parts
of the Asian region, including the Indian subcontinent, a Telkom
statement said last week.
It said TELKOM-2 enabled voice, video and data communications
to support Telkom's national and regional communications network.
Applications under TELKOM-2 may include multimedia and high-
speed internet services and a satellite telephone network.
The new satellite will replace Telkom's existing Palapa B-4
communications satellite, which has a lifespan until late 2004.
At an estimated cost of US$73 million, TELKOM-2 comes with the
same capacity as its predecessor TELKOM-1, which was built by
American firm Lockheed Martin for $84.8 million.
TELKOM-1 was launched in 1999 with a coverage area reaching
Southeast Asian countries and northern Australia.
It remains unclear whether TELKOM-2 will use the same launch
carrier as TELKOM-1. The latter was released from French-based
Arianespace's launch carrier, the Ariane 42P rocket.
"The launch mechanism for TELKOM-2 has not been decided and is
still going through the tender process," the statement said,
adding the launch date was set for late 2004.
Telkom further said it had signed a $14.7 million CDMA
contract with Korean Samsung Electronic Co. for the development
of fixed wireless telephone systems, comprising 40,000 lines and
16 Base Transceiver Stations.
CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) is built on existing
cellular phone infrastructure but offers a broader bandwidth.
The technology allows the development of the so called Third
Generation (3G) services for cellular phones such as position
location, streaming audio and video.
Under the contract, Surabaya will receive 25,000 lines,
Denpasar 10,000 lines, and Balikpapan 5,000 lines.
Telkom and Samsung plan to build the first 5,000 lines for
Surabaya by the end of next month. They expect to finalize the
remainder by the end of the year.
The statement added that using CDMA would reduce the cost of
investment per line as compared to Telkom's existing technology.