Indosat to provide more hotspots in public areas

Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

In a bid to provide faster access for Internet users, PT Indosat Mega Media (Indosat M2), a provider of Internet and multimedia services, is planning to make available 100 more wireless "hotspots" throughout the country this year.

"Currently, we only have about 30 hotspots across Indonesia. Therefore, we will add between 100 and 150 new hotspots every year in public places, including hotels and education centers," Indosat M2 Sales and Marketing Director Dede Rusnandar said over the weekend during the launching of the company's hotspot at the Santika Jogja hotel.

Of the existing 30 hotspots, he added, most were located in Jakarta with the rest scattered in Bandung, Yogyakarta, Semarang, Surabaya, Bali, Batam, Medan, Makassar, Balikpapan and Manado.

Indosat M2's first hotspot -- a wireless, broadband, Internet service using the WiFi (wireless fidelity) technology to provide faster Internet access of up to 11 MBps (or megabytes per second) -- was set up last August.

"In an area with the WiFi facility, a laptop computer or PDA (personal digital assistant) users with a WiFi card can enjoy an extremely high speed Internet access," Dede explained.

"In the future, we will make more available but with much wider coverage. It is called the WiMax that will change, not just the way we communicate, but also the way we do business."

WiFi facilities, he said, could be accessed only to a radius of some 200 meters, while WiMax would have a coverage area of up to 50 kilometers in radius.

"With WiMax we will be able to access the Internet from almost anywhere. It could be much the same way as we use our cellular phones today," he deduced.

He added that Indosat M2 would provide WiMax for desktop computers starting next year. A year later, the company will provide the facility for mobile communication devices such as PDAs, laptops and cellular phones, once the world's leading chipmaker, Intel, introduces the chip needed to access the facility from the mobile devices.

For the time being, a wireless Internet access at a hotspot, like at Santika Jogja hotel, costs Rp 12,000 (US$1.3) per hour. But in the future, with better infrastructure, the cost will be cheaper.