Indonesia’s attempt to close digital divide
Access to information should’ve been available all across Indonesia.
In reality, Indonesia’s archipelagic landscape with its unique geographical condition and uneven population distribution have created a certain level of geographical challenge. Indonesia’s population is over 272 million people, or 3.5 percent of the total world population.
Of the total land area (or 1,811,570 km sq), 45 percent of the population lived in disadvantaged regions in 2018. They are exposed to extremely limited telecommunication access that the average internet speed is not more than 300 kbps, while the average speed in urban settlements is up to 7 Mbps.
Another issue disadvantaged communities are facing is connection availability. Making the internet available in their neighborhood is expensive, not only due to the set up cost, but also transportation of goods. A number of isolated areas are just not accessible by paved roads, leaving man foot and carriage animals the only options.
Such challenge does not only cripple the government of Indonesia to deliver quality public services and information to every community in every province, but also interrupts the flow of economic activities. It has let social inequality to grow freely among households in cross-border regions.
There had been no way for the government not to depend on private sector for a BTS (base transceiver station tower) construction in remote areas; however, commercial development of telecommunication infrastructure hadn’t accommodated areas found to yield low return on investment.
In 2014 the government of Indonesia, or in this case the Ministry of Communications and Informatics, launched Indonesia Broadband Plan 2014–2019, the national guideline on infrastructure development. As stated on the guideline, the accomplishment of the plan does not center on infrastructure establishment. It is also defined by adoption level, its contribution towards the national development, and quality of life.
Indonesia’s affirmative policy
As part of the Broadband Plan, the Ministry of Communications and Informatics delivers wireless internet access with a strong focus on affirmative policy; in other words, it’s the delivery of wireless internet services that pays special attention to geographically-disadvantaged communities would accelerate communications and IT adoption on national scale and improve living quality.
On Indonesia’s universal service obligation (USO) scheme, part of Indonesia’s affirmative connectivity policy, broadband access can only be delivered strictly to outermost and remote regions or non-financially feasible areas that were never connected to the internet.
Within five years until 2019, fixed broadband service in urban communities was expected to cover 71 percent of the entire households at at least 20 Mbps and 30 percent of the entire population, while mobile broadband should be at least 1 Mbps. Meanwhile in rural communities, the fixed broadband is expected to reach 49 percent of the entire households at at least 10 Mbps and 6 percent of the entire population. Mobile broadband should be accessible by 52 percent of the entire population at 1 Mbps.
In making it happen, the Ministry of Communications and Informatics has long rolled out last-mile connections in ‘blank spots’ — areas with zero connection to any telecommunication service, particularly at busy public facilities (e.g. schools and head village’s office). The Ministry has been providing these connections at a minimum of 2 Mbps bandwith capacity. These wireless connections can be later backed up on fiber optic, satellite, microlink, or other possible transport networks.
Remote communities who wish to have this connection installed in their village are free to lodge a written application to BAKTI (formerly known as the government’s Telecommunications and Informatics Funding Provision Management Agency) and Minister of Communications and Information Technology. BAKTI reviews incoming applications on regular basis.
The milestones
Despite the reported slow adoption, Indonesia witnessed more and more remote villages adopted wireless broadband connectivity.
In 2015, 688 locations across 33 provinces were on air. Indonesia Agricultural Quarantine Agency and Training Centers of Indonesia’s Ministry of Manpower were among the first Indonesian organizations to have the wireless broadband ready for day-to-day uses. And in 2016, 920 of targeted 1.600 locations were connected. Meanwhile, in 2017 a total of 2,476 locations were connected, way above the target number of locations between 2015 and 2017.
Approximately 285 new on-air locations were connected to the wireless broadband from 2018 onwards.
The impact
The delivery of wireless broadband access with a focus on affirmative policy has supposedly been creating impact related to health and social wellbeing of Indonesians.
Wireless broadband is expected to enable Indonesia’s Ministry of Health to roll out their own telemedicine services to geographically-disadvantaged communities.
As with social wellbeing, Indonesia’s Ministry of Social Affairs and the National Development Planning Agency should’ve been able to use the wireless connectivity for the government social welfare tracking platform, Sistem Informasi Kesejahteraan Sosial Next Generation (SIKS-NG). Developed on a government-business cooperation (KPBU) funding scheme, it helps central and local government institutions validate social support recipient data all over Indonesia.
The Ministry of Social Affairs’ stakeholders such as the National Team for the Acceleration of Poverty Reduction, mayor’s offices and municipalities are in continuous need of update datasets. According to public reports and in-site surveys the Ministry of Social Affairs conducted, it had long occurred that social support was not distributed accordingly to beneficiary families. Residents of Sukabumi, Garut, Brebes, Cilacap, Malang, Kediri, and Probolinggo were the first ones whose data were validated.
The government-initiated wireless internet access has also supported entrepreneurial activities in Papua, the easternmost province of Indonesia (roughly 8-hour plane trip from Jakarta).
Kampung Enggros of Abepura District is also known as Papua’s first internet-ready village. In 2018, as many as 135 households stay in the 33,37-hectare area.
Every afternoon and evening, Enggros were full of villagers with their laptops and smart phones to use the 24-hour internet access at no cost when it was first installed in the village. While students only stayed during the evening work to do their school tasks, the women usually browsed in the day, as soon as they are done with household duties.
A lot of mothers enjoyed downloading new recipes, looked up homemade herbal medicine and even sourced inspirations for their latest noken (Papuan multifunctional woven bag) production from social media. It is common for Papuan mothers to sell noken to locals and visitors.
ICT Development Index (IDI) in 2017 showed Indonesia was three places up than its 2016 rank. Networked infrastructure and access to ICTs are reflected in assessment of the rank.
Indonesia was one of four countries in the Asia and the Pacific region to set out the most dynamic improvement in terms of 2017 IDI rankings and values. Among all countries said to improve progressively, Indonesia had the most active mobile broadband subscriptions.
Being an archipelagic economy where the population is unevenly distributed, it is rather impossible for Indonesia to solely depend on fixed broadband. The government, however, has been working to accelerate fixed broadband expansion across underdeveloped regions on Palapa Ring fiber optic network.
Partnerships, paving the way for greater impact
To deliver greater impact, the Ministry of Communications and Informatics has been initiating partnerships and is keeping close communication with cross-sectoral government institutions in Indonesia.
Desa Mandalamekar of Tasikmalaya Regency, West Java was one of 200 villages to market community products on the internet. Surrounding villages, such as Desa Mandalahurip, Desa Kertarahayu, Desa Ciwaras, Desa Papayan, and Desa Sindangkasih later followed Desa Mandalamekar to be wireless broadband-ready villages.
Desa Mandalamekar and the rest 199 villages has benefited from the Ministry of Communications and Informatics’ partnerships with village communities, telco companies, Relawan TIK (local information technology volunteers), along with other central and local governments.
Sustainability of broadband infrastructure
As simple as it sounds, wireless broadband can be implemented anywhere. Indonesia proved it to be one of the best viable solution to serve a large group of islands with challenging geographical condition. Of the total 514 regents, 122 were considered disadvantaged on a national scale in 2018, as based on Government Decree on the Acceleration of Disadvantaged Areas Development.
Wireless broadband access had been considered the best solution whenever a new BTS deemed to be too expensive, and where it may be impossible to build one on a challenging geographical landscape. On a further note, transforming wireless broadband access to a workable potential requires acceleration. Governing bodies were required to intervene on regulation level, or with stimulating and catalyst funding without competing with related companies. Accelerator programs are essential.
Two of the mentioned accelerator programs are Palapa Ring fiber optic network project and SATRIA, Indonesia’s very own multifunctional internet satellites.
Palapa Ring is Indonesia’s largest fiber optic network with a total of 35,280 kilometer under water and 21,807 on land. This network is built to connect 34 provinces as well as 440 cities and regencies. This network has been serving fixed and cellular lines since 2019. As for SATRIA-1, it’s planned to orbit within the next 2 years.
This article is taken from ‘Indonesia’s Broadband Internet Access: A Strong Focus on Affirmative Policy’ report submitted to World Summit on Information Society in 2018 on behalf of Republic of Indonesia Ministry of Communications and Informatics. The report was co-authored with Noor Iza, with knowledge support from Adis Alifiawan and Yulis Widyo Marfiah.
