Low Cost Broadband IP Satellite Backbone in Indonesia

This article will report on several IP-based satellite backbones in operation in Indonesia. Basically, shared VSAT IP service, such as Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) service seems to be the favorite low cost solution for broadband IP satellite backbone compared to the more costly Single Channel Per Carrier (SCPC). Answers to questions, such as typical configurations providing the service, will be described. Some of these services may be run without any government license. The receive-only IP VSAT service is one of these. A one-way receive-only IP-based DVB VSAT service may be obtained for US$33-270 per month. Two-way DVB/RCS VSAT service is around US$700-800 monthly including the monthly VSAT rental and maintenance fee. Having IP-based broadband backbone will enable many added value services, such as neighborhood or city-wide networks through WiFi (local broadband) 2.4GHz infrastructure and VoIP (voice over Internet protocol) community networks. These community based services are described below.