20 December 2021

Indonesia is exploring the latest telecommunication technology, the low earth orbit (LEO) satellite, in a bid to spur digital transformation.

The country’s coordinating minister for economic affairs Airlangga Hartaro underlined the digital transformation requires adequate telecommunication infrastructure, such as satellites and fibre optics.

“There is new technology named the low Earth technology named the low earth orbit satellite for an archipelagic country like Indonesia,” he added. “This is being explored and is needed globally because this infrastructure is easier to launch given the available providers.”

However, Airlangga underlined the requirement for calculating economic factors to apply the earth observation satellites. He also said he hoped that it would boost equal opportunities to access technology throughout the country.

Furthermore, the technology was also tipped to be the next disruption.

“This (satellite) will be the next megatrend or disruption where people need reskilling or retraining to meet digitisation needs,” Airlangga added.
Indonesia has already designed the roadmap and pushed for digital infrastructure and plans to exploit the LEO satellite communication services to remote areas.