Telkom asks competitors to joint fund next satellite

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 01/23/2009 12:44 PM  

State owned PT Telekomunikasi  donesia (Telkom) has invited its competitors to jointly invest capital in a new satellite project to expand Internet access and other means of communication. 

Telkom’s head of infrastructure division Sarwoto Atmosutarno said Thursday the country’s largest telecom firm is in talks with local rivals to establish a consortium. 

“We have offered several local telcom firms to join in financing the establishment of Telkom-4,” Sarwoto told reporters. 

“We offer this project to our competitors because we believe telcom firms can work together to develop the country’s telecommunications backbones.”  

PT Indosat, the country’s second largest telcom firm, was among the firms approached, Sarwoto said. 

In December last year, Telkom appointed ISI Retchesnev, a Russia-based firm, to build and launch its upcoming Telkom-3 Satellite,  at a cost of between US$175 and 200 million. 

Telkom and Retchesnev sign this contract in February. 

Sarwoto said Telkom-4, would cost the firm about the same as Telkom-3. 

Telkom has launched nine satellites since 1976. The last one, Telkom-2, was launched in November 2005 from French Guyana. 

The company is expecting  to  raise  $50 million annually from Telkom-3 after it is set up, according to Sarwoto. 

“The annual fee to rent a satellite transponder currently stands between $900,000 and $1.2 million,” he said, adding that Telkom-3 was designed to have 48 transponders. 

“The new satellites mean more customers can access the internet as well as other means of communication,” he said. 

Indonesia is home to 11 GSM and CDMA-based cellular phone operators with PT Telekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel), a Telkom subsidiary, being the largest. 

During the January-September period last year, the company, which has the largest market capitalization at the stock market, booked Rp 44.6 trillion (US$4.04 billion) in revenue, up by 2.18 percent from Rp 43.64 trillion in the previous year. 

Telkom plans to spend Rp 14-15 trillion for expansion in cellular phone networks and the remaining Rp 7-8 trillion in non cellular. The company is 51.19 percent owned by the government and 48.81 percent by the public. (hwa)