On Sunday, Elon Musk traveled to Bali, a popular tourist destination in Indonesia, to officially introduce Starlink satellite internet service in the largest nation of islands in the world.
The millionaire founder of social media platform X and the head of Tesla and SpaceX, who is known for his mysterious temples, colorful spiritual offerings, and tropical beaches, landed on the picturesque “island of the gods” via private aircraft.
Musk and Indonesian President Joko Widodo are scheduled to introduce the service at a later ceremony on Sunday at a public health center in Denpasar, the provincial capital of Bali. Along with signing a pact to improve connection in the nation’s health and education sectors, Musk was greeted at the airport by Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister of Maritime and Investment.
Widodo’s close ally Pandjaitan withheld additional information regarding the terms of the agreement between the Indonesian government and Elon Musk’s SpaceX, the aerospace business that runs Starlink services.
Read more-1
How to watch today’s NS-25 private space tourist mission online from Blue Origin
According to him, starting the service at a health clinic is in line with Starlink’s overarching goal of giving underprivileged and distant areas, in particular, inexpensive access to high-speed internet services.
With over 270 million people living on its 17,000 islands spread across three time zones, Indonesia is a sizable archipelago.
Prior to the event in Denpasar, Pandjaitan told reporters, “Our remote regions need Starlink to expand high-speed internet services, especially to help with problems in the health, education, and maritime sectors.”
The Minister of Communication and Informatics, Budi Arie Setiadi, had previously stated that the restricted coverage of base transceiver stations prevents local internet providers—who depend on them for signal transmission—from reaching the outer islands. They will be able to offer better internet speeds with nationwide coverage with the assistance of Starlink’s satellites, which are still in low orbit.
Musk is also expected to take part in the 10th World Water Forum, which aims to address global water and sanitation concerns, during his first in-person visit to Bali.
Prior to the Bali summit of the Group of 20 top economies in 2022, Musk gave a speech at the B-20 business forum. Weeks after concluding his closely watched takeover of Twitter, he joined the conference via video link.
Musk’s visit occurs only a few weeks after Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, stated the business will “look at” manufacturing in Indonesia at their April 17 meeting with Widodo. During his visit to Indonesia on April 30, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced that the business would invest $1.7 billion in new cloud and AI infrastructure over the following four years.
Under Widodo, Indonesia has encouraged growth in the information and digital technology sectors with the goal of realizing the government’s Golden Indonesia 2045 Vision. Exactly a century after gaining independence from Dutch colonizers, the nation aims to rank among the top five economies in the world with a GDP of up to $9 trillion.