Starlink service will be available in 3T areas, what will happen to the SATRIA Kominfo satellite?

Liputan6.com, Jakarta – In the Policy & Regulatory Forum discussion, the Director of Telecommunications at the Directorate General of Post and Informatics Operations at the Ministry of Communication and Information, Aju Widyasari, said that Starlink had fulfilled all the requirements needed to apply for a telecommunications operations permit.

These requirements include having an office, Network Operation Center (NOC), IP Address, Autonomous System Number (AS Number), gateway, security, and consumer service center.

On a different occasion, the Minister of Communication and Information (Menkominfo) Budi Arie Setiadi said that Starlink had agreed to open an office in Indonesia.

This statement then attracted the attention of a Telecommunications Observer who is also a Telecommunications Engineering Lecturer at the School of Electrical and Informatics Engineering at the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), Ian Josef Matheus Edward.

He considered the Minister of Communication and Information's statement as if Starlink had not yet opened an office in Indonesia. In fact, an office and NOC are mandatory requirements for obtaining a telecommunications operation permit.

“This shows the inconsistency of information conveyed between officials at Kominfo in processing permits to operate Starlink telecommunications,” said Ian, quoted Wednesday (5/6/2024).

According to information circulating, the Starlink office is in the Indonesian Stock Exchange building in Jakarta. However, it is only limited to virtual offices (not physical offices).

On the other hand, Aju said that people in the 3T area considered the presence of BTS BAKTI to be useless, because they complained that they did not get good broadband service. This is because the backhaul network used by USO BTS uses a Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT).

With the presence of Starlink, it is hoped that it will be able to provide broadband services in 3T (disadvantaged, frontier, outermost) areas which so far have not received prime telecommunications services.

Ian considered the statement by the Director of Communications and Information to be inaccurate. According to Ian, all services provided by BAKTI Kominfo in the 3T area are in accordance with applicable regulations.

“Moreover, currently the backhaul used in the 3T area comes from the SATRIA multifunction satellite which is managed by BAKTI Kominfo,” explained Ian.