International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXII, Part 6. Bandung-lndonesia 1999 
31 
AN ALTERNATIVE TRANSPORT FOR DISTANCE LEARNING 
USING TELKOMNET - TURBO 
by 
Andy Revara/ Eka Indarto 
Satellite Project Division of PT. Telkom 
ABSTRACT 
This paper is presented for the point of view of an alternative transport for distance learning via satellite. The use of communication 
satellite to provide the distance learning network is the most popular way because its wide coverage so that can overcome the burden 
ot distance and geographies, especially in Indonesia as a big and an archipelago country. 
More information on the characteristic of TELKOM's satellite named Telkom-1 is presented in this paper and also its comparison to 
its predecessors. The more powerful satellite makes it possible to have smaller dish, as a part of a Terminal, which encompasses on 
much lower cost to build the network. As almost all of the office equipped with the computers, the use of this network wiped-out the 
cost to buy a computer. 
Telkomnet-Turbo which comprises of antenna plus LNB and PCI card is an alternative to provide distance learning network with 
high rate asymmetric access up to 400 kbps. This rate is fast enough to pulled-out the information from a server compared access via 
local cable. 
INTRODUCTION 
Technology has been used in education beginning with 
instructional radio, film, and television starting in the early 
1960s. Early versions of those media provided low resolution 
images, since the technology of recording electronic signals on 
moving wire or magnetic tape was slow to develop. The 
development and mass production of integrated circuit chips 
gives many advantages such as lower prices, better quality and 
reliability for communication systems. In the early 1990s the 
telecommunication-based education just starting to realize its 
potential to use broadband communication, more powerful PCs, 
and digital videos. The satellite is the most popular solution to 
provide such services due to its big coverage so that it can 
overcome the burden of distance and geographies. 
1. TYPE OF SERVICES PROVIDED BY TELKOM 
USING SATELLITE 
PT. Telekomunikasi Indonesia,Tbk (TELKOM), as a stated- 
owned company that provide domestic telecommunication in 
Indonesia, began the program of distance learning in 1993 using 
combination of analog TV 36 MHz via TELKOM's satellite 
and dial-up lines. Due to the improvement on digital equipment 
and optimization of transponder usage, the application of analog 
TV has been shifted to digital TV since 1995. There are 3 kind 
of services related to distance learning that we have as follows : 
Indonet 
Indonet is one of Telkom facilities to conduct broadcast 
message from Bandung to all Telkom's branch offices in 
Indonesia via satellite. Studio and transmit equipment are 
located in TELKOM's Education Center in Bandung. The 
facility is used to provide any information for internal 
purposes including company policies, news, and tutorial. 
Telecast 
Telecast is designed to provide a link to all operational 
branches for the purposes of increasing on employee's 
knowledge and skill, coordination channel, socialization of 
operational procedures, and to exchange information among 
branches. Studio and transmit equipment are located in 
TELKOM's Master Control Station in Cibinong, about 30 
km from Jakarta. 
Telemedicine 
Telemedicine is the application related to medical term. The 
user of TELKOM's network for this is University of 
Indonesia, which conduct the tutorial and seminar from 
Jakarta to other cities. 
Nowadays, TELKOM through his school (Sekolah Tinggi 
Teknologi Telkom) has also develop web-based training which 
is still in development and trial process. It is predicted that this 
is going to be launched in June 1999. In addition to that, it is 
actively to do the digitization of analog video so that the archive 
took only small storing media and can be accessed faster. 
2. TELKOM OLD AND NEW SATELLITE 
COMPARISON 
TELKOM has operated 2 generations of Palapa, which are 
Palapa A and B generations, starting from 1976. All of Palapa 
A generation and two out of four of Palapa B generation has 
been de-orbited to the grave-yard, and the remaining two of 
Palapa B generations named Palapa B2R and Palapa B4 are still 
in operation. 
The new satellite called Telkom-1 will be launched in early 
June 1999 to replace the existing Palapa B2R satellite. Telkom- 
1 has much more powerful and capacity compared to its 
predecessors. Table 1 shows the major parameters 
distinguishing different generation of PT TELKOM’s satellites.