Telkom may sell 'Palapa-B2R' to lessor PSN
CIBINONG, Bogor (JP): Publicly listed PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) said on Monday it was considering selling its Palapa-B2R satellite to satellite transponder lessor PT Pasifik Satelit Nusantara (PSN).
Telkom's president A.A. Nasution said the company would no longer use the satellite following the launch of its new Telkom-1 satellite in August this year.
"We are going to sell Palapa-B2R. First priority will be given to PSN. We'll offer the satellite to other parties if PSN decides not to buy it," he told journalists during the opening ceremony of Telkom's new Rp 19.4 billion (US$2.7 million) satellite main control station in Cibinong.
The priority given to PSN was based on an initial agreement signed with the company, he said.
All transponder transmissions from Palapa-B2R had been transferred to Telkom-1 by Nov. 6, he said, adding that the new satellite's transponders would be fully leased by the first quarter of 2000.
Telkom-1, launched in August this year on an Ariane 42P rocket from the Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, has 36 transponders, each of which has about four separately leased circuits.
The $197.6 million satellite will provide for up to 20 years various telecommunications services, including multimedia and high-speed internet services, satellite telephony networks, backbone transmissions and analog or digital broadcasts to dozens of countries in the Asia Pacific region.
Palapa-B2R, which has 24 transponders, was launched in 1990.
Nasution, who declined to reveal the sales value of Palapa- B2R, said the satellite could still be used for another three to five years.
A company official said Telkom previously leased a single circuit of Palapa-B2R's transponders at a minimum annual leasing fee of $1 million.
Telkom's director of planning and technology, Andi Siswaka Faisal, said there were several local and overseas companies outside of PSN that had contacted Telkom regarding the satellite's sale.
"The companies include one from Canada. The others are mostly companies which operate in Asia, Africa and South America," he said without naming the companies.
He said Telkom wanted PSN or other companies which bought Palapa-B2R not to use the satellite to cover Indonesia, especially if the firm was to offer services similar to Telkom's Telkom-1 satellite.
PSN itself has its own satellite, the Garuda-1.
The satellite is managed by PT Asia Cellular Satellite (ACeS), which is PSN's joint venture firm with American satellite maker Lockheed Martin, the Philippines' Long Distance Telephone Company and Thailand's Jasmine International.
The launch date of Garuda-1 has been delayed several times since last year, mostly due to technical problems found in the Proton D-1-e rocket made to lift the satellite from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Russia.
Garuda-1 is expected to be launched soon and begin operations in the first quarter of 2000, providing mainly satellite-based cellular telecommunications using ACeS' GSM system to connect with dozens of countries in the Asia Pacific region. (cst)