On August 29, 2026, Communications and Digital Minister Meutya Hafid said her ministry would bridge Telkomsat and Starlink to coach Yogi Gilang Arya, a villager from Sikakap in the Mentawai Islands, toward becoming a licensed reseller. Yogi is being prosecuted in Padang District Court (case 450/Pid.Sus/2026/PN Pdg) for selling Starlink internet packages without a telecom licence. The minister's stated logic, reported by CNN Indonesia, is that when someone with good intentions brings connectivity, the ministry wants to find a way to make the activity legal and licensed.
The outcome is welcome. The episode also shows how far Indonesia's telecom statute sits from the connectivity gaps it is meant to close.
The case for enforcement
The strongest argument for prosecution is not pedantic. Licensing exists so that someone is accountable for service quality, lawful interception obligations, consumer complaints and network security. If any reseller of a satellite terminal could sell access without oversight, the state would lose visibility over who is carrying its citizens' traffic, and licensed operators who pay fees and meet obligations would be undercut. A regulator that tolerates open non-compliance invites more of it. Those are real concerns, and they explain why the ministry said it was respecting the ongoing legal process.
What the law actually does
The tool the prosecution relies on is blunt. CNN Indonesia's case summary reports that the charge falls under Law No. 36 of 1999 on Telecommunications. Under that law, operating telecommunications without ministerial permission (Article 11(1)) carries up to six years in prison and/or a fine of up to Rp 600 million, according to a Kominfo press release explaining Article 47. The statute dates from September 1999 and took effect in 2000, per the government's JDIH legal database. Its drafters were regulating fixed-line monopolies, not a villager reselling gigabytes from a satellite terminal.
The facts of the case show the mismatch. According to CNN Indonesia, Yogi bought Starlink equipment in 2024 for his parents' property, noticed how poor local connectivity was, and registered PT Mentawai Network Provider on October 2, 2025. Police filed charges on October 22, 2025, and he was arrested on July 8, 2026. CNBC Indonesia reports his packages cost Rp 10,000 for 2GB and Rp 23,000 for 6GB. That is a small local business, not an unlicensed network operator in any meaningful sense. His lawyer argues the matter belongs in administrative rather than criminal law, and the minister's own remarks implicitly agree.
Why the connectivity gap is the real story
Meutya Hafid justified the accommodation by pointing to conditions in Mentawai. As InfoPublik reported, the islands lack fiber-optic infrastructure and 4G alone is insufficient. CNBC Indonesia adds that Sikakap depends on a single 4G operator. A person who fills that gap is doing what Indonesia's universal-service ambitions ask for.
The pattern is not new for Starlink in Indonesia. Light Reading reported in 2024 that the government saw Starlink as suited to remote areas and industries rather than as a rival to mobile operators, and that Indonesia had removed restrictions on foreign ownership in satellite telecom. The policy intent, in other words, was to let satellite services reach places terrestrial networks do not. Criminal exposure for the last-mile person who actually makes that reach real cuts against it.
A ladder, not a trapdoor
The approach the minister chose, guidance toward reseller status through licensed providers, is the right template, but it has three weaknesses.
- It is discretionary. Yogi was helped because his case became public. The next reseller in Papua or Nusa Tenggara may not get a ministerial phone call. Rules that depend on publicity are not rules.
- The prosecution continues. Nothing reported so far says the case has been withdrawn. A villager who is being coached toward licensing while still facing a criminal trial receives a mixed signal, and other would-be resellers will read it that way.
- It routes through incumbents. Telkomsat is a Starlink distributor and also owns competing satellite capacity. Reseller pathways run through providers with their own commercial interests, so the terms of resale, not just its legality, deserve scrutiny.
What proportionate regulation looks like
A proportionate regime would separate three things the 1999 law lumps together: operating a network, reselling capacity under a licensed provider's licence, and merely sharing a connection. Registration or a simple notification duty, with the upstream licensed provider answering for lawful-interception and quality obligations, would give the state the accountability it wants without a six-year sentence hanging over a small operator. Criminal penalties should be reserved for operators who defy a written compliance order, not for those who never had a clear route to compliance.
Indonesia does not need to lower its standards. It needs to publish a low-friction, well-advertised route into the licensed ecosystem, so that the minister's exception becomes the default. If Mentawai's case leads to that, the prosecution will have done more good than a conviction could.