Broadband connections to make life easier

Broadband connections to make life easier

By Zatni Arbi

JAKARTA (JP): We all know that the world now moves at Internet speed. Unfortunately, our telecommunications infrastructure seems to crawl at a snail's pace. The accompanying photo of cables hanging from the two poles perhaps best reflects the level of professionalism of our telephone operator. What would happen if a drunk driver happened to knock these poles down? It would be several months before I would be able to use the phone in my house again.

How would you untangle cables that have been installed like these? And how can you expect a crystal clear connection if the cables are so disorganized?

The quality of service that we have been receiving only taints the state company's image further, and like a lot of other people I have stories to tell. I have two telephone lines at home, because I work here most of the time. The newer line, which I had intended to be used as a dedicated line for Internet connection, has been virtually useless. The line is multiplexed, and the connection quality is so bad that I have never been able to get more than 14,000 kbps. Even having a conversation is close to impossible because of the noise. Most of the time the line does not have a carrier signal.

To use it, I usually use the other telephone to dial its number first. Telkom promised that I would get a standard quality phone line as soon as one became available. I have waited for at least three years, and I'm still stuck with the multiplexed line. My current plan is to have it disconnected altogether as soon as KabelVision's Internet services become available in my area.

More recently, however, PT Telkom annoyed me when without my knowledge, they switched on the call-waiting feature for the second time. I had been given this feature earlier as a bonus when I applied for Caller ID. I soon realized why Telkom gave it for free. To give you an idea, picture this situation: When I called X, my meter would start counting. Then if Y called me a couple of seconds later, I would put X on hold and my meter would keep running. I would take Y's call and Y's meter would start. So, during the same span of time, two meters would keep running. "What a clever way to sell pulses," I said to myself. So I requested that the feature be turned off.

There are two other strong reasons why I absolutely do not want the call-waiting feature. I use the same phone line for accessing the Internet. As far as my modem is concerned, the least noise the phone line has, the better. The second reason is that, when the feature was activated, a lot of people complained that I never picked up my phone. It turned out that they were calling just when I was using the line to access the Internet. The call-waiting feature gave them an unanswered calling tone.

I did not want to upset my callers, so I got rid of the call- waiting feature.

I became angry twice when Telkom, having tracked my relatively large monthly phone bills that always got paid in full, decided that I should be helping them generate more pulses. So they activated the call-waiting feature without notifying me, let alone asking for my approval. I had to call them twice to have it canceled. A couple of months later, Telkom once again switched on the call-waiting feature.

Have you ever tried accessing PT Telkom's Website? I went to the site hoping that I would be able to read more information on the various types of service features that are available, including Nada Sela (call-waiting). After what seemed to be ages, and certainly a lot of pulses, I was disappointed that there was no such information there.

With such telecommunications infrastructure, and the less than encouraging performance of the only company that provides us with the most basic telecommunications services, it is understandable that most of us feel helpless.

Fortunately, due to an ongoing deregulation in the telecommunications industry, they may not be as distant as we believe. "There will be campus area networks with high speed connections to the Internet that will help us," said Paul Hardiman from PT Microsoft Indonesia during a recent discussion with a group of IT journalists. The services will be offered by more than just one provider.

The satellite-based Internet access that Pan Asia Sat Media (PASM) is planning to offer us is perhaps one good example. This Hong Kong-based company is working with their Indonesian partners to provide this service to high-end Internet cafes, housing complexes, commercial buildings, university campuses as well as companies with large operations in remote areas. With one Internet gateway that is directly linked to the satellite, the access can be distributed throughout the campus area network in the buildings, etc.

Unlike many other similar satellite-based services, PASM will use satellite links for both downlink and uplink connections. The downlink speed will be up to 1.5 Mbps, while the uplink, which does not have to be large, will be 386 Kbps. Other providers may still require us to use dial-up connection to the ISP for the uplink, which means that we will still be stuck with the old infrastructure.

Patrick D. Cheung, PASM's chairman, told me that his company would lease a transponder on Telkom One satellite and would support the network with a direct ATM link to their hub in Hong Kong. "Hong Kong is a very good choice for the Internet hub because of its large bandwidth link to the U.S.," he explained. Unfortunately, PASM's service will not be available directly to individual homes yet, as the remote gateway requires an investment of US$80,000 each. However, groups of homes in a real estate complex can perhaps justify the cost.

When they launch their services, PASM will not be the only player in the satellite-based Internet access service. Telkom has also been offering its own satellite Internet services called TurboNet. Another provider from Hong Kong that is already operating here is Infokom, which relies on the AsiaSat 3 satellite.

If you think broadband Internet access is beyond hope, you can be more optimistic. It may not become available immediately to you, but it is already on the horizon.