The satellite operator’s new five-year agreement with Lintasarta will use overlapping coverage from two of its high-throughput satellites, Intelsat 33e and Horizons 3e (pictured), which cover the Asia Pacific and Pacific Ocean region.
An Indonesian government’s universal service organisation (USO) agency Badan Aksesibilitas Telekomunikasi dan Informasi (BAKTI) has committed to fostering social development and accelerating equitable economic growth by connecting 150,000 sites across the country by the end of 2023.
In April 2019, Lintasarta was selected by Indonesia’s Ministry of Communication and Information Technology to advance its USO program, the ‘Internet Fixed Broadband and Mobile Cellular Backhaul over Indonesia via a GEO Fixed Satellite Services (FSS) System’.
Intelsat launched its new Horizons 3e satellite last year to complete the global network coverage of its Epic satellite portfolio and add coverage of the Asia and Pacific Ocean regions.
“Under our new agreement with Lintasarta, Indonesians will have access to fast, high quality, and consistent broadband that will provide easy access to government, education, and health services and support business operations,” said Intelsat’s VP and GM, Networks, Jean-Philippe Gillet. “We are pleased that Lintasarta has chosen to utilise Intelsat’s network to advance the government’s goal of building a more digitally inclusive society.”
Indonesia is home to the world’s fourth largest population, with citizens residing in more than 500 districts and 80,000 villages spread across approximately 6,000 inhabited islands.
Ginandjar Alibasjah, Datacom Director, Lintasarta, commented: “Intelsat’s proven performance, redundancy, and resiliency of its global network will allow us to rapidly scale and expand Indonesia’s network infrastructure, ensuring that all citizens, regardless of where they are located, will have access to broadband and internet connectivity.”
Intelsat's involvement in the Indonesian market is similar to an investment in mobile base stations builder Africa Mobile Networks last year, which is accelerating the growth of mobile connectivity in unserved communities in sub-Saharan Africa.
Intelsat became a member of the GSMA in 2019 as part of its strategy to promote the role of satellite in mobile technologies.
