"I appreciate the launch of Telkom 3S satellite, because it becomes the solution to the development of national tourism. Hopefully, the launch will run smoothly," Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said in Jakarta on Tuesday.
According to Yahya, Indonesia is geographically an island country with thousands of islands, which has a tourism potential but cannot be maximally accessed by telecommunications infrastructure and Internet.
"With increasingly wider Internet access across the country, the tourism sector, particularly the development of the 10 primary tourism destinations, could be boosted from now as the fourth biggest foreign exchange contributor to the national economy," noted Yahya.
In the meantime, Telkoms Director of Network and IT Solution, Abdus Somad Arief, said on Monday last week that all the preparations are already on schedule.
"Until now, all the preparations are on schedule," Arief said on the sidelines of the pre-launch at the Telkoms master control station, Bogor, West Java.
According to him, Telkom 3S satellite will occupy an orbital slot of 118 degrees east longitude at above Kalimantan, which is occupied by Telkom 2.
With the active period of the satellite being about 15 years since its launch, Telkom 3S has a capacity of 49 transponders, comprising of 24 transponders of C-Band (24 TPE), 8 transponders extended of C-Band (12 TPE) and 10 Ku-band transponders (13 TPE).
Telkom 3S is manufactured by Thales Alenia Space (TAS) of France, launched with the Ariane 5 ECA rocket VA235 owned by Arianspace Europa.
"Telkom 3S will replace Telkom 1, which will expire in 2018," Somad noted.
Telkom 3S satellite will be launched with an investment of around US$300 million, which will function to improve and expand the scope of telecommunications services, especially in remote areas that cannot be traversed by the optical cable.
"It provides communication services with higher bit-rate, resulting in better quality of communication. Thus, the television broadcast, mobile communications services and broadband Internet can reach all areas of Indonesia, Southeast Asia and some East Asian states," Somad explained.
He added that with Telkom 3S satellite, the telecommunications company will have three active satellites in orbit, namely Telkom 1, Telkom 2 and Telkom 3S.
Meanwhile, Project Head of Telkom Indonesia, Tonda Priyanto, said the operation of 3S Telkom is expected to reduce dependence on foreign satellites.
According to Tonda, currently, two-thirds of Indonesian areas cannot be reached by terrestrial communication systems, while satellites are helpful to address the disparity of access to information in the country.
Towards the launch, Telkom is inviting 250 students to explore the master control station in Cibinong, Bogor, to learn more about satellites.
The students have an opportunity to conduct studies on aerospace using virtual reality video 360.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2017
