Bright idea!

Sometimes, if only for a brief moment, I am a bit of an environmentalist. It therefore concerns me that despite the fact PLN electricity poles are already standing, new telephone cables are being erected in the same area running the risk of the cables colliding. It appears there is a need for a new optical fiber route.

In other countries, electrical cables run overhead over a single pole line, while copper telephone lines, fiber for trunk and coaxial cable for cable TV run under the ground. High capacity fiber optical trunk routes run along the divider of highways or are attached to the earth cable along high voltage power lines. Poles double as lampposts. (In Curitiba, we even paste the street names on them).

Less poles in the cityscape means less visual pollution, not to mention time and money saved by public utilities. If public utilities share the poles and do not erect new ones, it means lower costs for users. It also means more people will have faster and cheaper access to public services, particularly in a country with a widespread population such as Indonesia. People will surely get more kilowatts, TV channels or more dial tones for their dollar. It's about time the authorities stepped in and formed a legal team so public utilities can share the right of way.

OSVALDO COELHO

Bandung, West Jakarta