Broadband: A useful but ignored technology

By Mila Day

JAKARTA (JP): "Broadband" is not a new teen music group to replace Backstreet Boys. Broadband, in today's computer jargon, is some kind of ultra-connection. Once in a while it is called "fat pipe" because of the tremendous amount of data it can deliver. In contrast, baseband transmission (with slimmer pipes) allows only one signal at a time.

Broadband integrated services digital network (B-ISDN) and cable TV (many channels in one cable) use broadband transmission. Broadband facilitates B2B (business-to-business) transactions.

Let's check out what more the online encyclopedia tells us about "broadband". According to whatis.com, "broadband" refers to telecommunication that provides multiple channels of data over a single communications medium, typically using some form of frequency or wave division multiplexing.

In this digital era, multiplexing can mean the signals are using time-division multiplexing (TDM), in which the multiple signals are carried over the same channel in alternating time slots. In some optical fiber networks, multiple signals are carried together as separate wavelengths of light in a multiplexed signal using dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM).

Too technical? Not really. This broadband thing can be put in just one line: "A huge number of telecommunication signals transmitted at the speed of light and just a click away."

New technology

When the telephone arrived in the 1950s, sending a letter with a stamp (snail-mail, as we call it today) was considered a lame way to say "Hi" to someone two thousand miles away. When RCTI aired in 1989, TVRI was considered a "traditional" television station.

Not exactly at the speed of light, development of telecommunication and broadcasting has given birth to a new technology: broadband, where both telecommunication and broadcasting can be received in our computer. Or the other way round, we can browse any websites from our television set, if you are a cable TV subscriber.

Either way, this new technology can make our life easier than it is already. There are two other words related to this new technology: "integrated" and "interactive". If you watch your favorite TV program, say telenovella Esperanza, on our computer, it is called an "integrated" device. At the same time you can also send an e-mail to the PR Department of SCTV to complain of too many commercials on telenovella show. This is called "interactive."

The number of television sets still far exceeds the number of computers; probably four or even eight times. However, cable television can only be received in megacosmo cities like Jakarta. It is the installation of the fiber-optic cable and its infrastructure that can be considered as the biggest obstacles. Broadband reception on your TV set is out of the question for today.

Nevertheless, computers as a means of broadband connection has promise. Although not all of the computer in Indonesia are connected to the Internet, at least the infrastructure is mostly in place compared to cable TV infrastructure.

Warnet (warung internet or cybercafe) is the youngest brother of Wartel (warung telepon, or phone stall). Driving from Jakarta to Surabaya via the northern route, every village we pass has an eye-catching wartel signboard on the side of the road.

Metamorphoses

Add a computer, and voila this wartel sign metamorphoses to a warnet-wartel sign.

Unfortunately, the country's recent economic problems has stymied development of broadband technology, today's hype of the universe. For two years, Indonesia has been stimulated mostly to build an infrastructure for the country's democracy, rather than infrastructure for the distribution of information, knowledge, and entertainment via computer.

In Malaysia, the political turbulence of Mahathir Mohamad versus Anwar Ibrahim has not shaken this prosperity of tomorrow. Since 1997, Malaysia has been building Puterajaya and Cyberjaya near Kuala Lumpur. These are cybercities with four development phases, to finish in the year 2020.

In both cybercities, one house connects with another via computer networking AKA broadband networking. Cyberjaya area will cover 2,855 hectares (cyberjaya-msc.com). Cyberjaya, an intelligent city for multimedia companies will be developed next to Puterajaya, the new seat of government and administrative capital of Malaysia where the concept of electronic government will be introduced.

The official organization to handle this multimedia super corridor (MSC) in Malaysia is Multimedia Development Corp (MDC). Latest news posted on the Net, MDC has signed an agreement with a telecommunication consortium to develop a similar city in Indonesia, probably not in near future.

Speaking of near future, we have one site that is already hovering on the Net. The site web88888.com is pioneered with broadband technology.

With five-fold number 8 -- which symbolizes good fortune according to Chinese feng shui -- this site will shortly deliver five-folded fortune to this country.

How so? More and more people can see the real and untainted sights of Indonesia. From web88888.com, visitors can visit newspaper sites, and tune-in to radio and TV with multimedia environment.

Realtime show

By clicking an icon that says "Listen and Watch", visitors from all around the world can enjoy a realtime show. As we point the arrow to SCTV icon, we can watch Liputan 6 Petang live. With only seconds delayed, mostly picture lags, the program on the computer is the same as received on the television set at home.

Both the sound and video are digitally streamed, although sound flows smoothly, the pictures jolt now and then. Today's flaws will be short lived as hi-tech corporations deliver new generations of tools and software.

What about digitally streamed? Streaming is flowing (basic English), and this means picture or sound is flowing into the computer as it plays.

Streaming sound is sound that is played as it arrives. Streaming video is a sequence of "moving images" that are sent in digitally-compressed form over the Internet, and then digitally- decompressed and redisplayed by the viewer as they arrive.

To play it on an Internet capable computer, you need a RealPlayer by RealNetwork (real.com). There are a lot of other software applications besides RealPlayer and free downloads are available if you know where to look.

Have you visited one of the sites mentioned above? If yes, bookmark my words, you are already waxing the broadband connections to your home.

-- The writer is a cyber observer based in Jakarta.