An Ariana V rocket carrying the Telkom S3 satellite is moved from the final assembly building at the Guiana Space Center, Monday (13/2).
An experience from 32 years ago has recurred: the disruption ofan Indonesian communication satellite operated by state-owned telecommunications company PT Telkom (formerly Perumtel).
That disruption, which began on the morning of Friday, August 31, 1985, affected the Palapa B1 satellite. Now, the Telkom 1 satellite has been disrupted since late afternoon on Friday, August 25, 2017.
Back in 1985, the Palapa B1 was back in service the next day. Restoring the Palapa B1 satellite to its original position required extra rocket ignition, which meant its repositioning came at the cost of a shortened operational life. The Telkom 1 case experienced an anomaly in the direction of the satellite antenna, the consequence of which meant that the receiving antenna on earth could not capture signals transmitted from the satellite.
The disruption caused about 8,000 ATM machines to lose access to service networks, and customers could not access many other banking services. If satellites were used primarily for telephone and television broadcasting services in the past, today they also incorporate a data communication service, which is widely utilized by the banking industry.
We hope the problem caused by the Telkom 1 satellite can be resolved as soon as possible. Telkom president director Alex J Sinaga said on Monday (28/8) that the problem is being addressed by migrating Telkom 1 customers to the Telkom 2 and Telkom 3S satellites, as well as foreign satellites. Meanwhile, a decision on Telkom 1 will be made later.
As reported by CNN Indonesia, Communications and Information Minister Rudiantara made a wise suggestion, urging operators to prepare back-up satellites as soon as possible, and not to wait for problems to arise from the use of older satellites. It has to be admitted that the Telkom 1 issue belongs in this category. The Lockheed Martin satellite was launched in August 1999 and was to be retired in 2018.
It cannot be denied that the role of satellites, which we started to utilize in 1976 with the Palapa A1, is expanding. The government, corporations, and the banking industry are parties that depend highly on communications satellites, which orbit the Earth at a height of about 36,000 kilometers.
In direct relation to increasing development activities, the need for satellite transponders has also risen. However, because of its large investment cost– a modern satellite transponder is presently valued at about Rp 25 trillion (US$2 million) – not all parties that need them can also provide them. Indonesia itself still leases a lot of foreign satellite transponders.
Besides providing investment funds, no less important is preparing human resources, reliable experts and satellite operators.This is because public services that utilize satellite services are generally critical, and demand reliable technologies.
