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CORPORATE STRATEGIC - JAKARTA. PT Telkom Indonesia Tbk (TLKM) along with its subsidiary Telkomsat officially launched the High Throughput Satellite (HTS) named Merah Putih 2 Satellite from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The Merah Putih 2 Satellite will occupy the 113-degree East Longitude (113 EL) orbit slot or precisely above Kalimantan Island at a height of 36,000 kilometers (km) from the earth's surface.
President Director of Telkom Indonesia Ririek Adriansyah said that Merah Putih 2 Satellite is the first satellite with HTS or broadband technology, thus different from the previous TLKM satellites.
"The presence of this satellite aims to expand connectivity and broadband for remote areas included in the 2T region and the sea," he said in a press conference, Wednesday (21/2).
Furthermore, Ririek hopes that with the presence of Merah Putih 2 Satellite, VAST and cellular operators can be facilitated. Thus, broadband connectivity can be more evenly distributed, especially in the 3T region.
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The Merah Putih 2 Satellite, with up to 32 Gbps, will carry an active transponder consisting of C-band and Ku-band frequencies, which will cover the entire area of Indonesia.
President Director of Telkomsat Lukman Hakim Abd Rau explained that the merger of Merah Putih 2 Satellite was made by the company Thales Alenia Space and took about two years starting from 2021.
"Meanwhile, the investment that Telkom made for this Merah Putih 2 Satellite for the total system from satellite to ground segment reached Rp 3.5 trillion," said Lukman.
As for the satellite launch vehicle, Telkomsat collaborated with SpaceX to launch the satellite from earth to the specified height using the Falcon 9 rocket.
Lukman stated that both partners were chosen considering the low cost per Gbps. Thus, Merah Putih 2 Satellite has a large capacity and competitive selling price.
"The majority of the capacity will be used as backhaul and many consumers are interested, especially from the Very Small Aperture Terminal (VAST) operators," he said.
Merah Putih 2 Satellite is estimated to be in the final orbit on March 3, 2024.
Then the test that takes about 3 weeks to 4 weeks so that Merah Putih 2 Satellite will be ready to operate in April 2024.
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Although not yet operational, Lukman said the majority of the capacity of Merah Putih 2 Satellite is used as backhaul and will target the corporate segment and Very Small Aperture Terminal (VAST) operators.
Essentially, Merah Putih 2 Satellite will target the wholesale and enterprise business. As a backhaul, this new satellite will be used by VAST operators and mobile operators.
Then from the enterprise side, this satellite can target the mining and maritime segments. Especially areas that have not yet and are not reached by terrestrial services.
"Many VAST operators have expressed interest. But there are already 5 companies that will contract with Telkomsat in the near future," said Lukman.
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Head of Research at Mirae Asset Securities Robertus Hardy said the launch of this new satellite will have a positive impact on TLKM as it will increase efficiency and drive financial performance growth.
"The potential addition is quite promising from the corporate segment and VSAT operators so it can drive growth in the wholesale and enterprise markets," he said to Kontan, Wednesday (21/2).
Robertus said because Satelit Merah Putih 2 is a new business, it is not yet known how much percent contribution it will make to the total revenue that TLKM will earn.
The reason is, so far, Telkom's largest revenue still comes from PT Telekomunikasi Selular or Telkomsel and IndiHome. That is, the retail or business to consumer (B2C) segment of TLKM still dominates.
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Citing TLKM's memo info, Telkomsel's revenue contributed Rp 66.16 trillion as of September 2023 or up 1.6% annually. In the same period, TLKM booked a profit of Rp 111.23 trillion.
Mirae Asset Securities pinned a trading buy recommendation for TLKM with a target price of Rp 4,790. Until the end of trading on Wednesday (21/2), TLKM parked at the level of Rp 4,180 per share, down 0.71% from the previous closing
