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Satnews Daily
January 19th, 2017

Third Indonesian Satellite To Launch Next Month



Artistic rendition of the Telkom-3 satellite.
Image is courtesy of Thales Alenia Space.

Last year, Indonesia's largest telecom firm, PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom), had planned to launch a new satellite to bring better connectivity and services to their customers—that launch was canceled.

Now, next month, Telkom is scheduled to stick their $199.7 million satellite into orbit. The satellite, the third, is named Telkom-3 and will support voice and data services. The manufacturer, Thales Alenia Space, started on this project back in July of 2014 and the launch itself will be handled by Arianespace from the European Spaceport in French Guiana.

According to Telkom's chief technology officer, Abdus Somad Arief, plans are afoot for a fourth satellite to make its way to orbit in June of 2018 and is named Telkom-4, which will drive Internet connectivity at 100 Gbps.