Indosat plans new satellite acquisition and launch

Indonesian telecoms operator PT Indosat has announced plans to acquire and launch a new satellite to replace its Palapa-C2 orbiter which is due to end its operational life in January 2011. Antara news quotes Indosat president director Johnny Swandi Sjam as saying: ‘We will launch a new satellite. It is now in the process of being procured. We hope to make further decisions on it in the near future.’ The company hopes to launch the replacement by 2009 at the latest. Although Palapa-C2 is currently operating ‘normally’, it is feared it could stop functioning properly before its scheduled January 2011 end date because of technical problems. If that happens and Indosat has failed to deploy a replacement, the government could deem it to have underutilised its satellite licence and revoke it.