Government would Withdraw Aces Satellite Orbit Slot

Rudiantara (dok)

JAKARTA (IndoTelko) - Minister of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) Rudiantara plans to withdraw the allocation of 123 degrees east longitude orbital slot which had been occupied by the Garuda-1 satellite belonging to the Asia Cellular Satellite (Aces).

Aces is a joint venture consisting of Lockheed Martin (USA), Pacific Satellite Nusantara (PSN, Indonesia), and two partners from the Philippines and Thailand.

Garuda-1 satellite was orbiting on February 12, 2000 and will end its operation term in 2015, it is located nearby the Asiasat 4satellite position and JCSAT 4A. The satellite is controlled by ground stations in Batam.

"The Garuda 1 will end its operation in 2015, but I've been receiving reports from PSN for leaked fuel, so it must be orbiting until 2018. There is no problem about that. But we (the government) will pull out the slot from them and handing it over to the Ministry of Defense," said the minister, to IndoTelko, yesterday.

According to the minister, the steps taken by the government is normal because orbit slot is owned by the government. "So, if previously Aces was assigned to operate it, now the government through the Ministry of Defense. That is the L-Band satellite which is highly strategic for the country," Rudiantara said.

There are only 8 L-Bands satellite in the world, while regionally owned by Indonesia, Japan, Thuraya (Middle East), Australia, Inmarsat, and others.

"Later I will talk to PSN regarding this matter. I have explained to all defense, maritime and fisheries stakeholders about this matter. Everyone is happy. But we haven't known yet the next Ministry of Defense's future partner, there has been no progress," Rudiantara said.

Garuda-1 satellite is a communications satellite that is able to reach across the Asia Pacific region without exception, including in the middle of the ocean or even in the jungle.

Its ability is to penetrate the rural areas as well as sea and other remote places that have not been reached by mobile operators.

Currently there are five satellite operators in Indonesia which operates five satellites, namely Indosat with Palapa D in their orbital slot 113, Telkom with the Palapa B-1 in orbit slot 108 and Palapa B-3 in orbit slot 118.

PT Mediacitra Indostar with Indostar is located at orbital slot 107, PT Pacific Satellite Nusantara Pacific Palapa is at orbital slot 146, and PT Aces with Garuda-1 is in orbit slot 123.

While foreign satellites which indicated is quite widely used by dozens of companies in Indonesia generally come from several countries in the region such as Singapore Satellite, Measat, AsiaSat, Thaicom, JCSAT, Apstar, Agila, Intelsat, PanAmSat, Sinosat, Chinastar, NSS , and IPSTAR. (es)