Jakarta, Feb 10 (Antara) - Indonesia expects to overcome the country's digital divide by providing internet access to all its villages, and consequently promoting tourism, through its new generation satellite, Telkom 3S.
Scheduled to be launched at the Guiana Space Center, Kourou, French Guiana, on February 14 local time or February 15 in Indonesia, the Telkom 3S satellite, when in orbit, will smoothen telecommunication and facilitate internet connections in villages and remote regions across the country.
As of now, about 30 percent of the country's 74 thousand villages have no access to internet. By the end of this year, all the villages are expected to have internet service.
According to M Ridwan Effendi, secretary of the Policy Research and Telecommunications Center of the Bandung-based Institute of Technology (ITB), the Telkom 3S of PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia will help resolve the issue of the digital divide in the country.
Indonesians have been eagerly awaiting the launch of the Telkom 3S satellite because it can facilitate telecommunication services to even isolated areas of the country.
Thus, the Telkom 3S satellite will help connect all the regions in the Unitary State of Indonesia (NKRI) that has thousands of islands.
So far, the islands are difficult to access with the internet through an optical fiber cable network or microwave on land.
"With the satellites, all the NKRI regions and even parts of neighboring countries will be accessible," noted Effendi.
Tourism Minister Arief Yahya pointed out that the country faced a rather difficult set of problems, thanks to its geographical situation.
Yahya reiterated that Indonesia is an island country that has thousands of islands with immense tourism potential but vast areas of the country were still outside the footprint of telecommunications infrastructure and internet.
"With the internet access increasing across the country, the tourism sector, particularly the development of the 10 primary tourism destinations, will receive a boost. The sector is the fourth biggest foreign exchange contributor to the national economy," noted Yahya.
It was in this context that the launch of the Indonesian Telkom 3S satellite is being viewed as a positive development for the country's economy, notably the tourism sector.
"I appreciate the launch of Telkom 3S satellite because it will offer a solution to the development of national tourism. Hopefully, the launch will pass off smoothly," Minister Yahya stressed in Jakarta on Tuesday (Feb 7).
The General Chairman of the Indonesian Telematics Society (Mastel), Kristiono, opined that the launch of the satellite is part of the efforts to shore up Indonesia's digital sovereignty. "Indonesia, with its islands and geographical conditions, is difficult to be reached without a satellite infrastructure. It is a fact that over 50 foreign satellites have a footprint that overlaps Indonesia's sovereign region while the country's own satellite coverage only accounted for 10 percent of it. The Telkom 3S satellite will improve the coverage, capacity and the quality of services," asserted Kristiono.
Indonesia still lacks some 100 satellite transponders, both for national communications and broadcasting services. To meet its needs, the country has to depend on foreign satellites. As a result, tens of foreign satellites are operating in Indonesia.
By the end of the first semester of 2016, 31 applications for landing rights from foreign satellite operators were pending, twice more than the number in the first semester of 2015.
Earlier, Network, IT, & Solution Director of Telkom, Abdus Somad Arief, had said that the launch of the Telkom 3S satellite will reduce the dependence on foreign satellites. Although Telkom already has two existing satellites, it needed additional capacity so that it should lease foreign satellites.
"Indonesia was the second country in the world to have launched a satellite in 1976. So far, we have always been buying satellites. We hope in the next five to 10 years, Indonesia will be able to produce its own satellite," Arief emphasized.
According to Arief, the Indonesian telecommunication company, Telekomunikasi Indonesia, is all set to launch Telkom 3S on Feb 15, 2017, at around 4:39 pm Indonesian Standard Time (WIB), at the Guiana Space Center.
Telkom 3S satellite will occupy an orbital slot of 118 degrees east longitude above Kalimantan, which is occupied by Telkom 2.
The satellite is expected to remain actively operational for about 15 years after its launch. Telkom 3S has a capacity of 49 transponders, comprising 24 transponders of C-Band (24 TPE), 8 transponders of extended C-Band (12 TPE) and 10 Ku-band transponders (13 TPE).
Telkom 3S has been manufactured by Thales Alenia Space (TAS) of France, and is being launched with the Ariane 5 ECA rocket VA235 owned by Arianspace Europa.
Telkom 3S will replace Telkom 1, which will expire in 2018. It will be launched with an investment of around US$300 million.
It will help improve and expand the scope of telecommunications services, especially in remote areas that cannot be traversed by the optical cable.
With the launch of the Telkom 3S satellite, the telecommunications company will have three active satellites in orbit, namely Telkom 1, Telkom 2 and Telkom 3S.(A014/INE/B003)
EDITED BY INE(T.A014/A/BESSR/Bustanuddin) 10-02-2017 21:20:2 |
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