Indonesian operators PT Telkom and PT Indosat have teamed up to deploy a satellite for telecom and HDTV services at a cost of up to $200 million (€155 million).
The duo plan to replace two existing birds with the new satellite, the Telegeography.com reports, with Indosat’s Palapa C-2 and the Telkom-1 satellite’s both due to be decommissioned in 2014.
The total investment will depend on the number of transponders available on the craft, the companies said. Telkom's latest $200 million satellite has 48 transponders.
Preparatory work is expected to begin this year, and the bird should be in the air by 2014.
Indosat currently owns two satellites, while Telkom has two in operation and plans to launch a third next year.
The Indonesian government owns a majority stake in Telkom, and 11.3% in Indosat.
Indosat this week reported a 71.5% decrease in profit to 287.1 billion rupiah (€24.9 million), while Telkom's profit fell slightly to 6 trillion rupiah from 6.04 trillion.