Malaysia's Axiata Group has signed a four-year agreement to lease capacity over Thaicom's IPSTAR-1 satellite for the provision of broadband services in Indonesia.
Subsidiary Axiata Business Services will purchase the remaining capacity on the broadband satellite, located at 119.5° east.
Thaicom's IPSTAR unit will provide multi-transponder 1Gbps high throughput satellite (HTS) capacity under the contract.
As well as direct home and enterprise broadband access, Axiata plans to use the capacity for mobile backhaul.
“We are leveraging on Thaicom’s capabilities in Asia to grow our enterprise business quickly and flexibly while providing reliable broadband services to all potential customers regardless of location,” said Axiata group chief business operations officer Asri Hassan Sabri said.
“Where terrestrial-based connectivity is limited or unavailable, HTS connectivity serves as an enabler to unlock the digital ecosystem for new market opportunities... Thaicom’s IPSTAR helps us to connect users in remote and underserved areas of Indonesia cost-effectively. We are confident that the partnership will enable us to continue to grow our business faster without infrastructure limitations.”
IPSTAR-1, also known as THAICOM-4, was the first HTS satellite launched worldwide in 2005, with a capacity of 45Gbps. It includes 87 Ku-band transponders and 10 Ka-band transponders.