Besides 4G Tower, Indonesia Needs Satellite For Equitable Internet

Illustrations of satellite (doc. Nasa Gov)

JAKARTA - The Telecommunications and Information Accessibility Agency, Ministry of Communication and Information (BAKTI Kominfo) sees the use of satellites as a solution option for equitable internet access in the country.

"Because of Indonesia's geographical location, it is unavoidable to use satellites," said Director of Infrastructure BAKTI Kominfo, Bambang Nugroho, as quoted from Antara, Wednesday, June 23.

The geographical condition of Indonesia, which is an archipelagic country and has many hills, makes it impossible to reach all points of the telecommunications network based on fiber optic cables.

If you rely on fiber optic cables, construction is quite difficult for some areas and requires very high costs. The government is working on the SATRIA-1 multifunction satellite with a capacity of 150GB per second, which according to the schedule, can be operational by the end of 2023.

BAKTI cites the IIGF Institute's 2019 research on the economic impact of this multifunctional satellite in four sectors. Increasing internet network at unconnected points by 3 percent per year, SATRIA-1 promises internet cost savings of Rp29 trillion for 15 years.

Meanwhile, from the e-government sector, it is estimated that there will be savings of around Rp4 trillion from the use of the government budget. The e-education sector is also estimated to be efficient when using this satellite, transforming the paper-based National Examination into UNBK, the average savings is estimated at around Rp3,000,000 per school per year, with an inflation rate.

In 15 years, savings in the e-education sector for 15 years reached Rp59 billion. Efficiency will also occur in the use of e-healthcare, providing savings of around Rp59.3 billion over 15 years.

The construction of the SATRIA-1 satellite is currently in progress, which will continue until 2023. The SATRIA-1 satellite will provide internet at 150,000 public service points, which currently do not have access or do not have an adequate internet connection.

The 150,000 points consist of schools and Islamic boarding schools (93,900 points), local governments (47,900), health facilities (3,700), Police offices (3,900), and other ministries and institutions (600). Indonesia has a total of 501.112 public service points, currently, the total that is well served by the internet has only reached 351.112 points.