Telkomsel is tapping on Transcelestial’s telco-grade lasers (lasercomms) to spearhead a new era of connectivity for the country and address pressing network congestion issues.
“This pivotal step relieves network congestion and lays the foundation for a more robust and resilient infrastructure. Transcelestial’s telco-grade lasers are built to accelerate the advancement of connectivity solutions for Indonesia. We’ve seen it first hand with our initial deployment and we look forward to rolling it out further so the benefits of this solution impacts more locals across the country,” said Nugroho, Chief Executive Officer of at Telkomsel.
The partnership between Telkomsel and Transcelestial, alongside key local partner Akses Femto, signifies a strategic alliance dedicated to overcoming Indonesia’s connectivity hurdles. Network congestion challenges currently impact millions of users, leading to slow internet speeds, dropped calls, and disrupted data services
Transcelestial’s telco-grade lasercomms solution is powered by a shoebox-sized device called a CENTAURI and offers a revolutionary approach to addressing network congestion. Each CENTAURI beams a highly secure invisible laser that connects to other CENTAURIs to form a communications network between buildings, cell towers, and poles, all without the need for physical fiber cable wires.
Rohit Jha, CEO and Co-Founder of Transcelestial said, “Telkomsel’s embrace of telco-grade lasercomms represents a seismic shift in Indonesia’s telecommunications landscape. By transitioning away from legacy technologies towards the advanced infrastructure lasercomms allow for, Telkomsel is proactively addressing the evolving needs of Indonesia’s digital age.”
Telkomsel has seamlessly integrated laser communications into its existing infrastructure, enhancing connectivity capabilities. Today, close to 20 CENTAURI links have been deployed and are operational in the Telkomsel network. This is equivalent to more than 25km of connectivity that would typically need fiber cables.
As a result, Telkomsel has not only achieved its goal of easing congestion on their backhaul links but also had significant cost savings and a reduction in operational expenses since spectrum usage is not required and hence, license fees aren’t either.
For context, spectrum license fee costs for 10GB in E-band will amount to more than US$80,000 for a 5-year operation for a single link. For twenty 10G links, that is a cost savings of US$1.6million by using CENTAURIs for connectivity. Apart from the huge license costs there are also other factors, like lease for space on a tower where the CENTAURI has a very small footprint as compared to a typical RF solution which includes the radio and the antenna.
Telkomsel’s pioneering use of telco-grade lasercomms sets a precedent for future deployments and innovations in Indonesia’s telecommunications sector. As the partnership evolves, Telkomsel and Transcelestial are poised to explore new applications and opportunities, such as extending coverage to rural areas, enhancing emergency response communication, enterprise solutions for business needs and supporting initiatives.
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