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The Ministry of Communication and Informatics of the Government of Indonesia has launched a tender for the financing, design, procurement, construction, launch, operation and maintenance of a multifunctional government satellite. The total estimated investment of the project is IDR6.58 trillion (US$456.7 million).

The satellite will provide broadband connectivity to 150,000 government-owned sites in the country, which cannot connect to existing Wi-Fi networks due to their remoteness. A High Throughput Satellite (HTS) is seen as the most effective solution to bringing internet to these locations as fiber optics, the choice solution for broadband connectivity projects in Europe, is considered too expensive.

93,900 of these sites are in the education sector (both lower and upper schools), 47,900 have national and local government functions, 3,900 serve defense & security purposes (such as army buildings), and 3,700 are in the health sector.

The HTS to be launched by the selected private partner will have capacity to transmit 150 gigabyte​s per second, more than 100 times the capacity offered by a conventional non-HTS satellite. 

The Indonesian government is aiming to select a private partner and sign the 15-year PPP contract for the project before the end of 2019, indicating a desire to get the satellite launched as soon as possible. The reportedly projected launch time is Q2 2022.

The prequalification documents are available for purchase until 20 August 2018. For more information, see the Business Opportunity.