'Flexibility that needs government's leverage'

'Flexibility that needs government's leverage'

Zatni Arbi, Contributor, Jakarta

Most urbanites in Indonesia take fixed wire-line telephones
and mobile phones for granted. We carry our cells everywhere, and
they have probably become more important to us than our wallets.

Many of us may find that we can no longer function without
them even though sometimes in the same breath we also say: "I
hate this thing! It robs me of my privacy".

The fact is the telephone is here to stay, and it has become a
means of communication that we cannot live without. A six-hour
blackout in a city would seem more bearable than finding
ourselves without telephone service, fixed or mobile, for an
hour.

Our generation may still recall the person recognized as being
responsible for inventing the phone. The interesting thing is
that this man, Alexander Graham Bell, was working on finding ways
to help the deaf or those who had hearing impairments -- his wife
Mable included -- to communicate. What he came up with back in
1876 was the telephone, which has become so indispensable to the
world.

A lot has happened since 1876, needless to say. The
installation of mechanical switchboards, the first of which was
installed in New York City in 1923, helped ease the chaotic web
of telephone cables strung to poles and provided employment to a
lot of people. As the number of telephone subscribers increased,
however, pairing them to each other in a manual way became
impossible. Electro-mechanical switchboards were introduced,
enabling people to make calls by dialing the number of the other
party. Today, digital switching is used.

Mobile phones came along in the 1980s. It is amazing to see
how quickly the size of mobile phones have shrunk over the years.
From the size of a portable typewriter to the size of a key chain
or a wristwatch. Even implanted cell phones have been developed,
although we may not really see a commercial version of this
highly miniaturized device.

Wireless to the Rescue?. Over the last two decades, wireless
technologies have been responsible for the faster growth of
telephone availability in the world, including rural areas where
operators are not investing as heavily as they do in the more
lucrative urban market.

For many years in this country, we have been devastated by an
extremely slow growth in the number of telephone lines. The
biggest challenge was, of course, the "last mile", the
installation of wires from the nearest telephone exchange to
subscribers' homes or offices. However, hope has come back again
as operators begin to roll out their fixed wireless telephone
networks.

The advantages are clear: First, there is no need to pull any
wires, as signals can travel through air. The cost of
installation should be reduced, and the service should become
more affordable. Second, installation of a new phone line should
take only hours instead of weeks as in the past.

Telkom, for example, has announced its CDMA-based product and
service called TelkomFlexi. Using CDMA 2000 technology, the
network will provide not only voice communication but also data
communication capability of up to 144 Kbps.

The state-owned operator promises that it will charge
TelkomFlexi users the same rate that it charges users of fixed
wire-line telephones. Another advantage is that TelkomFlexi
subscribers can have limited mobility without having to pay the
airtime charge imposed by cell phone operators. Let's just hope
that Telkom will not change these subscriber-friendly policies in
the future.

Other operators will provide similar fixed wireless phone
services, too. For data communications -- including digitized
voice data -- the rapid proliferation of Wi Fi-based hot spots
will make our communication easier and richer. Equipped with a Wi
Fi-enabled notebook or Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), we can
work anywhere and at any time we need to or whenever we want.
Wireless technologies have given us the flexibility that even
Alexander Graham Bell would not have envisioned back in the 19th
century.

This flexibility, however, is not without its downside. For
example, in the past, when mobile phones were not available,
people tended to be more organized in their activities. For
instance, they would study the map carefully and note where to
turn right or left along the way before going to a friend's place
they had not visited before.

Today, we simply drive off, knowing that we can turn to our
cell phones to get the directions needed to get us there. Even
schoolchildren have fallen into the habit of using their cells to
call home and tell their drivers to bring them the books they
forgot to put into their backpacks.

Thus, the biggest question is what can this flexibility do for
people? Will the increasingly affordable and widely available
telecommunications services really empower people in their lives?
Will it really enable our small farmers, for example, to set
prices for their products, if their old tradition of relying on
middlemen is not changed? Will it really help our children
prepare for a better future if telecommunications only reduces
their face-to-face interaction with the real world?

Ever since the days of the telegraph, telecommunications has
been changing at a rapid pace. It has made our lives easier in
many ways. But can it truly improve the quality of life for those
who are not ready to use it for purposes other than just
participating in multi-player games?

Clearly, telecommunications alone is not enough to take
Indonesians to a higher level of achievement as a nation. All the
flexibility that telecommunications affords us has to be
accompanied by capacity development, by the creation of a social
and cultural environment where people from all walks of life can
adapt and change and take advantage of how technology --
including telecommunications -- can bring benefits to our lives.

Let's hope that our next administration will truly see the
importance of developing people's capacity, introducing the right
policies and taking the necessary steps to enable people to use
the tools to create true progress.