Kominfo Still Considers LEO As SATRIA-2 Location

Deputy Minister of Communication and Information Nezar Patria (photo: Rana/VOI)

JAKARTA - Deputy Minister of Communication and Information, Nezar Patria, said that Low Earth Orbit (LEO) is a very strategic location for satellites. The reason is, this orbit is very close to Earth. Therefore, they took advantage of the connection from the Starlink satellite operated by SpaceX. Although Kominfo is aware of how strategic this location is, Nezar said that it has not decided to place SATRIA-2 at LEO. "(the placement at LEO) is again under discussion," said Nezar. "It could be (SatRIA-2 was placed at LEO). But it may also not be SATRIA-2, perhaps in other forms." Apart from the location of the orbit that SATRIA-2 will use, Nezar said that Kominfo is trying to secure several places at LEO. Kominfo Minister Budi Arie Setiadi is discussing this in Geneva. "The government is fighting for some of the spots above him we have for LEO. There are tens of thousands of spots that are (currently) being asked for global permits. The Minister is again in Geneva, again negotiating the matter."

Nezar was reluctant to discuss further the location of the LEO that the Ministry of Communication and Information is fighting for. For now, Nezar can only say that the LEO spot that Kominfo wants to secure can be used by local operators. "We'll just have to wait for the Minister to come home, he's still in Geneva. He's talking about it. We can have our own LEO, it's a low earth orbit satellite, actually there are already some that have been used, he's a 300 miles satellite from Earth," explained Nezar.