Exploring the possibilities of over 20 million online<\/p>\n
By Onno W. Purbo<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Twenty million Indonesians online by 2004: Is it
\nhype or reality?<\/p>\n
At the moment, an estimated 1.5 million Indonesians surf the
\nInternet by way of 130 Internet service provider (ISP) licenses
\nissued by the government.<\/p>\n
All information technology (IT) and cyber activities are
\nsupported by over two million PCs with approximately 10 million
\ntelephone lines in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
To make it more difficult, only three million to four million
\nIndonesians have postsecondary education that renders them able
\nto play a major role in cyberspace.<\/p>\n
It would, therefore, be a real challenge to hook 20 million
\nIndonesians into the Internet, especially with minimal support
\nfrom the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund
\n(IMF).<\/p>\n
Behind the formal activities performed by the government, an
\nunderground movement is currently underway to integrate more
\nIndonesians into cyberspace.<\/p>\n
There are 1,000 Internet cafes (warnet) and their numbers are
\nincreasing rapidly due to IT educational activities in terms of
\nroad shows, talk shows and seminars organized by many IT players.<\/p>\n
Four to five IT seminars, workshops and talk shows a week are
\ncurrently the normal rate.<\/p>\n
Most young \"cyberpreneurs\" are spending time at the Indonesian
\nInternet cafe mailing list asosiasi-warnet@egroups.com, which
\nhosts a daily discussion among its over 800 members.<\/p>\n
It is not surprising to learn that 60 percent to 70 percent of
\nIndonesian Internet access is done through these warnet as
\nreported by MarkPlus in SWA magazine.<\/p>\n
All these activities are financed by the warnet and IT
\ncommunity with practically no support from the WB, the IMF, Asian
\nDevelopment Bank or from the government.<\/p>\n
No money has been paid by our children or grandchildren in
\nbuilding a knowledge-based society, unlike the old regime.<\/p>\n
An aggressive technological approach has to be taken by these
\nwarnet to overcome the high telecommunications costs involved.<\/p>\n
For warnet applications, it is currently a bit difficult to
\nget phone lines, especially high-speed (<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, business cannot wait and technological
\nsolutions must be sought.<\/p>\n
Kabelvision and LinkNet have taken extraordinary steps by
\ninstalling Internet into their cable TV infrastructure. Anyone
\ncan access the Internet 24 hours a day at approximately Rp
\n330,000 per month, which is a good deal for most.<\/p>\n
Some warnet have the luxury of being able to access this cable
\nTV infrastructure. Some months ago, LinkNet offered their cable
\nfor use if the warnet community could organize a certain number
\nof warnet to be connected.<\/p>\n
Cable TV seems to be the most preferred infrastructure for
\nbroadband network.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, most infrastructure is currently located in
\nJakarta, Surabaya and a couple other large cities.<\/p>\n
High-speed wireless and satellite technology merging with PC-
\nbased technology seems to be the consensus adopted.<\/p>\n
Several satellite providers, such as Melesat (infokom.net),
\nPalapaNet (Satelindo) and TurboNet (Telkom), are adopting one-way
\nhigh-speed satellite access at approximately 1.5Mbps, which is
\nfairly similar to direct video broadcasting (DVB) via satellite.<\/p>\n
These companies must compete with international competitors in
\nproviding DVB service as satellite footprints do not recognize
\nnational borders.<\/p>\n
A landing right from the Ministry of Transportation is the
\nonly permit needed by international operators prior to providing
\nservice.<\/p>\n
Connected to a US$100 receive-only parabolic antenna, a low
\ncost DVB card on a PC can be used to capture the broadcasted
\n1.5Mbps data transmitted via the satellite mostly on C Band (4-
\n6GHz).<\/p>\n
The DVB card will cost $200 to $300 each. There is major
\ndifficulty in adopting the DVB technology by getting a request up
\nto the ISP.<\/p>\n
Most services are using the ordinary phone channel (33.6Kbps)
\nto transmit data to the Internet.<\/p>\n
Turbonet is experimenting with the possible use of 9,600bps
\npacket radio technology to transmit the data to the Internet.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, it is either too expensive or too slow on the
\ntransmit (uplink) channel.<\/p>\n
To overcome the low-speed transmitting channel via an ordinary
\nphone line, ISPs such as Pacific Satellite Nusantara (PesatNet)
\nand Rainbow2u.com are offering two-way satellite links.<\/p>\n
These ISPs are currently using a high bandwidth of 512Kbps to
\n1.5 Mbps in downlink traffic and 64Kbps to 384Kbps in uplink
\ntraffic.<\/p>\n
Therefore, it is much faster than an ordinary phone line.
\nPesatnet is using either a single channel per carrier (SCPC)
\ntechnology or an advanced version of it.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile Rainbow2u.com is using DVB-based technology similar
\nto the three ISPs mentioned earlier for its downlink channel on
\nthe L-band Telkom-1 satellite.<\/p>\n
Rainbow2u.com is using 384Kbps SCPC transmission for its
\nuplink channels via the satellite.<\/p>\n
In upcoming years, these ISPs, one-way satellite as well as
\ntwo-way satellite services, are planning to open their satellite
\ntransponder for more bandwidth (<\/p>\n
In heavy traffic, such as at a warnet, that would be
\napproximately $5,000 to $6,000 a month for full 1.5 Mbps access.<\/p>\n
Some sort of bandwidth sharing scheme must be implemented to
\nlower the access cost.<\/p>\n
A community of 15 warnet to 30 warnet in several cities is
\nworking on sharing satellite bandwidth. A good example is the
\nwarnet cooperative in Bandung, headed by Kang Aday, located at
\nawaba@egroups.com<\/p>\n
Other cities, such as Yogyakarta (warnetyogya@egroups.com),
\nMalang and Surabaya are the next warnet communities working on
\nbandwidth sharing schemes, which in the end will build their own
\nwireless network without having to rely on slow Telco cables.<\/p>\n
Most warnet prefer to use Wireless LAN IEE 802.11 technology
\nfor sharing bandwidth.<\/p>\n
This wireless LAN IEEE 802.11 equipment, normally based on
\nPCMCIA cards, can run at least 2Mbps topping at 11Mbps while the
\nlatest version to be released next year will run at over 50Mbps,
\nis much faster than the technology offered by Telco.<\/p>\n
To lower the cost, most of us are using a PC-based route
\ndistance coverage of up to seven km to 10 km between warnet.<\/p>\n
Conceptually, these warnet are building their own high-speed
\nmetropolitan area network (MAN).<\/p>\n
An investment of approximately Rp 20 million per Microwave LAN
\n2Mbps to 11Mbps pair with an additional Rp 2 million a year for
\npermission to use the frequency is basically the cost needed to
\nrun such a high-speed microwave system.<\/p>\n
These warnet pay about Rp 1.5 million to Rp 2 million a month
\nfor getting these 2Mbps to 11Mbps dedicated lines.<\/p>\n
It is much cheaper than renting an xDSL technology from Telco
\nwhich costs Rp 10 million a month, or Rp 120 million a year, for
\na dedicated 2Mbps line.<\/p>\n
Having the ability to build a low-cost high-speed MAN, Bandung
\nis currently well-known among warnet communities as the center of
\nMicrowave LAN with over 50 warnet connected at 2Mbps to 11Mbps.<\/p>\n
Not to mention the breakthrough by Pointer warnet in Bandung,
\nnamely as Indonesia's first and only mobile warnet in a VW Combi
\nat 2Mbps.<\/p>\n
Having 200 to 300 members at a warnet is normal. Therefore, if
\ncarefully implemented, these warnet may offer a flat rate of Rp
\n20,000 to Rp 40,000 a month to each person for full service
\nInternet access, including the notorious Internet Telephony
\n(VoIP).<\/p>\n
Can you imagine? A flat rate of Rp 20,000 to Rp 40,000 monthly
\nper person to access the Internet, including all long-distance
\ncharges via Internet telephony.<\/p>\n
In a high-density cyber community, such as schools and
\nuniversities, the access rate can be pinned down to a monthly Rp
\n5,000 per student.<\/p>\n
Using IntraNet and warnet technology, several universities,
\nincluding the University of Parahyangan Bandung, charge their
\nstudents about Rp 5,000 a month each for unlimited Internet
\naccess.<\/p>\n
At SMKN 1, a vocational school in Ciamis, students only pay Rp
\n1,000 a month each for e-mail access. Internet is affordable,
\nespecially at most educational institutions.<\/p>\n
Based on today's situation, there are 150,000
\ntelecommunications outlets (wartel), with a potential three
\nmillion to six million e-mail users; over 1,000 warnet with a
\npotential 200,000 users to 400,000 users; 1,300 higher education
\ninstitutions with a potential three million to five million
\nusers; 4,000 vocational schools with a potential three million to
\nfour million users; and 10,000 high schools with five million to
\nseven million potential users.<\/p>\n
With the Internet becoming affordable for most Indonesians, a
\nprojection of 20 million Internet users is not a far off figure;
\nhowever, they would be concentrated in more populated
\ncommunities. The key to making this a reality is technological
\neducation.<\/p>",
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