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)