Indosat to install 100 hotspots

YOGYAKARTA: In its bid to provide Internet users with much higher access speeds, PT Indosat Mega Media (or Indosat M2), which provides Internet and multimedia services, has planned to install some 100 hotspots throughout the country this year alone.

Indosat M2 sales and marketing director Dede Rusnandar revealed the company's plans here over the weekend, during the launch of the first hotspot that the company has built in Yogyakarta.

"We currently have about 30 hotspots across Indonesia. Some 100 to 150 will be added every year in public places, including hotels and education institutions," Dede told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of the launch.

Of the 30 hotspots, most are in Jakarta. The rest are in Bandung, Yogyakarta, Semarang, Surabaya, Bali, Batam, Medan, Makasar, Balikpapan, and Manado. Indosat M2 first introduced the facility in August last year.

Hotspots are wireless, broadband, Internet facilities using WiFi or wireless fidelity technology, which can provide high- speed Internet access of up to 11 megabytes per second (mbps).

This compares favorably with dial-up Internet connections, which mostly have a speed of only about 50 kilobytes per second (kbps).

"Within an area with the WiFi facility, users of a notebook or PDA that has a WiFi card can enjoy extremely high-speed Internet access," said Dede, adding that the main objective in providing the facility was to offer customers wireless, high-speed Internet access any time, anywhere. --JP