Lack of Net contents hamper mobile Net

Lack of Net contents hamper mobile Net

JAKARTA (JP): The lack of suitable Internet content has
hampered introduction of mobile Internet service to the domestic
market, the Association of Indonesian Cellular Telecommunications
Operators (ATSI) said on Saturday.

Head of ATSI's industry policy division, Rudiantara, said the
existing Internet content is mostly unsuitable for mobile
Internet use due to its length and complexity.

"Mobile phone producers, operators and vendors are
technologically ready to introduce mobile Internet in Indonesia.
We are only waiting for the right content to be offered," he told
The Jakarta Post.

General manager of marketing for the country's largest GSM
operator Telkomsel, Erik Meijer, said the successful launch of
mobile Internet service in the country would be very much
dependent on the preparedness of all concerned parties, including
mobile phone manufacturers, vendors, operators and Internet
content providers.

He said in a recent seminar on mobile Internet service that
mobile telecom operators could not market the new mobile Internet
service without the availability of appropriate technology and
content.

"Telkomsel will launch mobile Internet service this year...
What we need for success is support and cooperation from handset
suppliers, hardware vendors as well as Internet content
providers," he said.

Rudiantara said that due to the small screen size and slow
data transmission of mobile phones, Internet content providers
were expected to develop concise text-based contents.

According to Meijer, applications suitable for wireless
Internet use were those containing practical, useful information
for mobile phone users such as weather and traffic reports,
simple transactions, financial briefs of stocks and currencies,
airport and train schedules as well as condensed "yellow pages".

Rudiantara, who is also the director for customer service and
corporate affairs of another GSM operator, Excelcomindo Pratama,
further encouraged new Internet start-up companies to focus their
services on mobile Internet use.

"Mobile Internet actually offers a greater market opportunity
than the PC-based Internet because the number of mobile phone
users is definitely bigger than the number of PC-based Internet
users," he said.

He said there were currently around 2.4 million mobile phone
users across the country, compared to less than 500,000 Internet
users.

ATSI estimates the number of mobile phone subscribers will
exceed over three million people by the end of this year, against
2.05 million users at the end of 1999.

The Association of Indonesian Internet Service Providers
predicted the number of Internet users in Indonesia to reach
approximately 1.45 million this year and rise further to 1.98
million next year.

Mobile telecommunications players in Indonesia are currently
brushing up to follow the new, global trend in the telecom
industry, the mobile Internet.

The country's three GSM operators Telkomsel, Excelcomindo and
Satelindo said they were optimist about being able to
commercially launch mobile Internet this year because they had
adopted the technology and the right type of mobile phones are
already on shipment here.

Since the early 1990s, international mobile phone makers, such
as Nokia, Ericsson and Motorola, have been developing a new
global, open standard technology for handheld devices called the
Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) that allows users to access
on-line services without having to plug into computers.

These companies have also created new mobile phones designed
for mobile Internet use.

Ericsson, for example, will launch the A2618, R320 and R380
models in next quarter, Nokia already has the 9110 Communicator
on the market and will launch the new 6210 and 6250 models later
this year, while Motorola will launch the Timeport P1088, the V-
dot V.2288 Series and the Talkabout T2288 Series before the end
of the year.

State-owned telecom monopoly PT Telkom estimates the number of
mobile internet users in Indonesia at around 2.6 million, or
about 20 percent of the total mobile phone users in 2004.

Rudiantara said that due to the lack of attractive and
suitable content for mobile Internet use, the development of
mobile Internet market would be a bit slow this year.

He projected only between 50,000 and 100,000 out of the total
three million mobile phone users would register for the new
mobile Internet service this year. (cst)