The Agency for Accessibility and Information (BAKTI Kemenkominfo) of the Ministry of Communication and Information successfully launched the Republic of Indonesia's satellite (Satria-1) on Monday, June 19, 2023, using SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket under the leadership of renowned entrepreneur Elon Musk.
The launch of Satria-1 took place at Cape Canaveral, Florida, United States, with the participation of various international companies, including Thales Alenia Space (TAS), which is responsible for the assembly of this satellite.
According to the Indonesian President's Instagram page, this satellite is the first multifunctional satellite owned by the Indonesian government, with the largest capacity in Asia. This satellite will also later occupy an orbit of 146°BT directly over Papua.
After successfully reaching the 146°BT position, PT Pasifik Satelit Nusantara (PSN) and Thales Alenia Space (TAS) are preparing to conduct in-orbit testing to ensure the SATRIA satellite's functionality after launch. This phase is expected to last three weeks, during which all satellite systems and equipment will be carefully tested.
Upon completion of the test phase, PSN will conduct the In-Orbit Acceptance Review (IOAR) during the first week of December 2023. This process is a comprehensive review to ensure that the satellite is functioning properly and is ready to provide internet services to the public.
It is expected that the public will be able to start using SATRIA-1's internet capacity in January 2024. A recent study by BAKTI Kemenkominfo estimates that SATRIA-1, with a capacity of 150 Gbps, will provide Internet services to 50,000 public access points in 2023.
Satria-1, with Very High Throughput Satellite (VHTS) technology and a Ku-band frequency with a capacity of 150 gigabytes per second, has been specifically designed to provide fast Internet. With a height of approximately 6.5 meters and a weight of 4.5 tons, the satellite provides a solution to the lack of connectivity in public services across Indonesia, especially in the outermost, remote and underdeveloped (3T) areas. The project also aims to promote digital economic transformation in areas not yet covered by internet networks.
According to Kominfo spokesman Dedy Permadi, there will still be around 12,548 villages without adequate 4G signal coverage in 2020. With the launch of Satria-1, the government hopes to digitize more than 150,000 public service points that do not yet have internet access.
These public service points include 93,900 schools and Islamic boarding schools, 3,700 health centers and hospitals, 3,900 public security services, 47,900 village or kelurahan offices, and 600 other locations.
In this project, the internet speed at each public service point is estimated to reach 4 Mbps, which is a significant increase from the initial calculation in 2018, which only carried a speed of 1 Mbps for each point.
