Even though it is within the scope of Business to Business (B2B) cooperation, the entry of the Starlink satellite to Indonesia indicates that the relationship between Indonesia and the United States (US) is getting tighter.
Starlink is a broadband connectivity provider that claims to be high-speed using satellite. Starlink is part of SpaceX, the space company led by Elon Musk.
"Bilateral trade relations in the telecommunications and digital sectors between Indonesia and the United States are growing rapidly," said Minister of Communication and Information (Menkominfo) Johnny G Plate to us, Monday (13/6/2022).
Previously, there were already established collaborations that resulted from these two countries, all of which were related to satellites.
The Very High Throughput Satellite (VHTS) type satellite is named SATRIA (Ka-Band) with a capacity of 150 Gbps
Very High Throughput Satellite (VHTS) as Hot Backup Satellite (Ka-band) with a capacity of 80 Gbps
High Throughput Satellite (HTS) owned by Telkomsat (C & Ku-band) with a capacity of 32 Gbps.
All three satellites are planned to use Elon Musk's SpaceX - Falcon 9 rocket launcher
"The three of them are GSO - Geo Stationer Orbit Satellites Ka Band," said the Minister of Communication and Information.
As previously reported, Starlink satellite players officially entered Indonesia by cooperating with PT Telkom Satellite Indonesia (Telkomsat), a subsidiary of Telkom.
The Ministry of Communication and Information (Kominfo) said that Telkomsat had obtained the Landing Rights for the Special Non-Geostationary Satellite (NGSO).
"Not internet services, but Starlink sells satellite capacity to Telkomsat for backhaul services. Starlink is not given internet retail sales rights," concluded the Minister of Communication and Information.