Bandwidth Cowboy

While in Bandung, I put 90,000 kilograms in a Kijang going through a good part of West Java. From Sindangbarang to Darmaga you name it. I was almost everywhere. A piece of trivia: there are places in West Java with telephones but no electricity. Then I came to Jakarta.

As I went through the traffic jams I looked at those huge office blocks and imagined them full of cool telecommunication stuff. That is until I started noticing those small dishes pointing right up. Is that to hook up the point of sales of Toys "R" Us or what? No, they seem to be everywhere. VSATS terminals are useful things to connect faraway islands and remote villages. Or for petroleum engineers to download data from offshore oil rigs or drilling sites in the jungle. This isn't real bandwidth cowboy stuff. In a metropolitan environment, using those tiny 64Kbit/-hookups is akin to arming Kopassus (Army Special Forces) with Swiss army knives. No wonder the property market is in trouble.

Picture this: A deep-pocketed new arrival is chauffeured from the airport to downtown Jakarta and sees those Mickey Mouse hookups on the way. He is going to think about leasing property in Singapore or Kuala Lumpur. The Malaysians are making a big hoopla out of their Multimedia Supercorridor, remember? If you forget to put a toilet in an office block it is more forgivable than forgetting the bunker for the computer mouse to install their modems, hubs and stuff. If you do not put a room to terminate real telecom stuff like fiber optical terminals and multiplexers just pray the buyer will overlook that. Now with the rupiah low and a lot of property on the market is time to go for the kill. Jakarta is an alternative to Singapore, Hong Kong, Seoul or Kuala Lumpur. They say they have good telecommunications over there, why not have it here as well and hook up the all the buildings in no time?

(I wonder what was made of the creative juices of the marketing people in the real estate business). If the guys see a property with all that bandwidth for them to use and still are reluctant to sign, you can say that next year's haze will be thinner. (Anyway, it also affects Kuala Lumpur and across the Straits). Currency problems? The Koreans also went to the IMF! Hong Kong? Well, Cathay Pacific needs to offer goodies to people to fly there. If the guys still don't sign you can always say: "And you are free to chew gum here, Sir!"

OSVALDO COELHO

Jakarta