Indonesian operator Indosat will not launch its planned Palapa-E satellite after losing the operating rights to the 150.5E orbital slot to state-owned Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI).
Last week, BRI announced it would become the first bank in the world to…
Indonesian operator Indosat will not launch its planned Palapa-E satellite after losing the operating rights to the 150.5E orbital slot to state-owned Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI).
Last week, BRI announced it would become the first bank in the world to launch a communications satellite after ordering a C- and Ku-band bird from Space Systems Loral. It will be used to provide a domestic platform for secure banking connection services.
Called BRIsat and based on the SSL 1300 platform, it will be placed at 150.5E in 2016 by Arianespace to support around 10,000 branches, as well as the bank’s more than 100,000 electronic channel outlets.
Indosat is already operating Palapa-C2 at that same orbital slot. But the bird, which was launched by Arianespace in 1996, has been providing services beyond its expected lifetime.
To replace it, the Indonesian operator had tapped Orbital Sciences in the hope to launch Palapa-E by 2016. And until recently, Indosat was still in talks with several global satellite operators over the joint development of the orbital position.
However, a spokesman for the company told SatelliteFinance that, since Indosat no longer owns the slot, it will not launch Palapa-E.
He also indicated that there are currently no partnership discussions with BRI to lease capacity from BRIsat. The spokesman however stressed that Indosat still operates the Thales Alenia Space-built Palapa-D at 113E.
Earlier this year, the CEO of Indosat, Alexander Rusli, told SatelliteFinance that he viewed the operator’s satellite business as a non-strategic asset. But he also said he was not considering spinning it off like South Korea’s KT Corp did with KT Sat.
Rusli pointed to the benefits of Indosat’s satellite operations in helping the company to fulfil its pledge to cover as much as of the country as possible, including the most rural parts of the archipelago. He added that there was great growth potential in Indonesia for both DTH and satellite broadband services.
