PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom)

2017: Shutdown of thousands of ATMs because of problems with the satellite

At the end of August, 2017 thousands of payment terminals and ATMs in Indonesia ceased to work as a result of failure of the satellite belonging to the state telecommunication giant PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom). For resumption of work of the bank equipment about two weeks can be required, Reuters reports.

On Monday, August 28, the president of Telkom Alex Sinaga announced journalists that about 15 thousand objects in the country (banks, supermarkets, shopping centers, etc.) suffered because of problems with the Telkom-1 satellite based on which also state bodies, banks, broadcasting companies, etc. use services.

Thousands of ATMs in Indonesia failed after problems with the satellite

The communication failure reason specialists call change of the direction of the satellite antenna which happened still on August 24.

The bank of Central Asia (Bank Central Asia, BCA — the credit institution, largest in Indonesia, on market capitalization) notified the clients on shutdown of 5700 ATMs to which share about 30% of the means which are in circulation at bank fall. Besides, some branches BCA were cut off from the Internet, the chief executive of Dzhakhya Setyaatmadzha company (Jahja Setiaatmadja) told.

The State Bank of Rakyat Indonesia announced breakdown of 300 ATMs. However, some part of them it was succeeded to recover quickly.

According to our estimates, till September 10 on all 15 thousand objects operation of ATMs and terminals will be recovered — Alex Sinaga promised.

By its estimates, by August 28 communication from 17% of ATMs and payment terminals was adjusted thanks to connection to other satellites and change of the direction of ground antennas. In Indonesia, according to the local Central Bank, there are more than 100 thousand ATMs.^[1]

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