Government allocates Rp 45b for rural phones

Government allocates Rp 45b for rural phones

Sari P. Setiogi
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta

The government has decided to allocate an initial Rp 45
billion (US$5.02 million) to provide basic telephone services in
about 43,000 villages nationwide that have no access to the
service.

"It took quite sometime to decide the amount of the budget
allocated," Ministry of Transportation telecommunications and
information director Tulus Rahardjo said on the sidelines of the
National Seminar on Telecommunications 2003 on Thursday.

"In fact we should start the project at least by the end of
December."

Earlier this year, the former spokesman for the Directorate
General of Post and Telecommunications at the Ministry of
Transportation, Gatot Dewa Broto, mentioned the total funding
required for the project was Rp 475 billion.

"We will ask telecommunication service providers who already
have well-established infrastructure to undertake the projects.
We do not want them to spend too much of the budget on
infrastructure. Most likely Telkom and PSN (Pacific Satelit
Nusantara) will do the initial project this year," Tulus said.

However, he also said that Indosat might be invited to take
part in the project this year, soon after they established their
infrastructure.

PT Telkom, a state-owned company, held monopoly on the
country's fixed-line telephone network for about 30 years until
last year, when the government allowed Indosat to compete with
the state company in the sector.

PSN offers a GSM satellite service using the Garuda-1
satellite technology.

Tulus also said the government would oblige the telephone
operators to contribute 0.75 percent of their gross revenues to
help fund the project.

"It is expected that the project would be finished in three
years. However, with contributions from the telephone operators
we expect the project could be completed even faster," he said.

The project is part of the implementation of the Universal
Service Obligation (USO) program aimed at providing phone
services for all citizens.

The USO was agreed upon during the International
Telecommunications Union (ITU) conference in Nairobi, Kenya, in
1995, when all countries were advised to provide their citizens
with basic telecommunications facilities, such as telephone, fax
and telegram services.

Furthermore, the Asia Pacific Telecommunications (APT)
organization at its summit in Tokyo in 2000, issued the so-called
Tokyo Declaration calling on all member countries to provide all
of their citizens with access to telecommunications by 2005.

"Currently, Indonesia has a fixed-line penetration rate of 3.6
percent, meaning since our independence in 1945, we thus far can
only provide 8 million fixed lines for a population of more than
220 million," Director General of the Directorate Post and
Telecommunications, Djamhari Sirat, said in his keynote speech
during the conference.

In comparison, there were 14.3 million cellular phone
subscribers in Indonesia as of June this year since cellular
service was first introduced in the 1980s, according to the
Secretary General of the Indonesian Cellular Telecommunications
Association (ATSI), Rudiantara.

He estimated the number would increase to 17 million by the
end of this year.