Indonesia plans to launch a new telecommunication satellite this month to replace an older one, an industry spokesman said Thursday.
The Telkom 2 satellite is scheduled for launch by an Ariane rocket from Kourou in French Guiana on November 9, a spokesman for state-owned telecommunication company Telkom, Rohiman Sukarno, told AFP.
Telkom 2, to be put into orbit by an Ariane5 rocket of the European company Arianespace, will replace the country’s second-generation satellite Palapa B4 that ended its service in May 2003, Sukarno said.
About 70 percent of the 24 transponders will be marketed commercially in the region while the rest will be used by Telkom, the firm said.
The 73-million-dollar Telkom 2 satellite was built by US firm Orbital Sciences Corporation.
Indonesia currently has three Palapa telecommunication satellites in orbit, two of which are operated by Indosat, another Indonesian telecommunication company.
An archipelago of more than 17,700 islands, Indonesia depends largely on rocket-launched satellites for telecommunications.
