Two giant Indonesia telecommunication operators PT Telkom and PT Indosat have agreed to jointly provide a satellite service in the country, the Jakarta Post quoted officials as saying on Thursday.

Under the agreement signed in Jakarta on Wednesday, the new satellite would replace Indosat's satellite, Palapa C-2 that will stop orbiting in 2014, Telkom president Rinaldi Firmansyah said following the signing of the agreement.

He said that Telkom and Indosat would spend up to 200 million U. S. dollars to procure the new satellite, which would be also operated to meet the future need for high definition television ( HDTV), and other telecommunication activities that require more bandwidth.

Telkom spent about 200 million dollars for its latest satellite, which has 48 transponders, while Indosat had spent around 2 trillion rupiah (about 223 million dollars) to buy a Palapa C-2 satellite, which only has 36 transponders.

Fadzri Sentosa, Indosat director and chief wholesale and infrastructure officer, said that both companies would do some preparation on the project starting this year, expecting the project to be accomplished in 2014.