Nusantara 21 info network to connect the archipelago

By I. Christianto

JAKARTA (JP): 1997 will be the Year of Telecommunications, marking the country's strong commitment to the information technology era.

Indonesia declared 1993 the year of the Environment and Heritage, 1994 the year of the Women's Role in National Development and the year of Youth and Sports, 1995 the year to Commemorate the Fiftieth Anniversary of Independence and 1996 the year of Maritime and Aerospace.

1997 being the Year of Telecommunications is likely to be timely because Indonesia is starting to make great strides in global telecommunications and information technology.

The country is working on a massive telecommunications plan to further enter the information technology era. The project, named Nusantara 21, is designed to connect the whole archipelago to the information superhighway.

It will involve both private and government participation and is estimated to cost at least Rp 33 trillion (about US$14 billion).

Minister of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications Joop Ave said recently that the country had no other choice but to embark on such a massive project. Otherwise, Indonesia would be left behind by other nations.

President Soeharto is scheduled to declare 1997 telecommunications year, focusing on Nusantara 21, on new year's eve.

Nusantara 21 will include the development of multimedia technology in several big cities and wide-band super lanes by the year 2001. The state-owned PT Telkom has been assigned to coordinate the project in cooperation with other institutions, ministries and private parties.

Nusantara 21 is the country's next major breakthrough in telecommunications technology after deciding to develop a communications satellite system, Palapa, in 1976. Indonesia became the first Asian nation to operate a domestic satellite at a time when such a system was only applied by developed countries like Canada and the United States.

Nusantara 21 is also set to strengthen and renew social development in Indonesia.

In the first phase, the project will link the country's 27 provincial capitals with an information technology infrastructure and superhighway networks with interconnection priorities appropriate to each province's economic development plan.

In this first phase, being prepared this year, the infrastructure does not have to be uniform. Interconnection linking the 27 capitals will be dominated by 155 Mbps wide-bands.

All existing telecommunications infrastructure, including satellites, conventional and terrestrial cables, submarine cables and terrestrial radio links are to be linked to the new massive telecommunication networks.

In the next phase, Nusantara 21's expansion will depend on the level of development in each city in the country. The technology to be applied must provide infinite wide-band and high-qualified transmission.

Major cities and district capitals should be hooked up by the year 2001. By that time, educational and cultural, health, trade, research and science, tourism, public service and government applications will have been sufficiently developed to benefit from the telecommunication highways.

Such a network of services will also enhance private activities including finance and banking, education, trade and other development activities.

However, the project will face a number of barriers due to the current poor telecommunications facilities.

The current telephone density figure in Indonesia is still very low, less than two fixed telephone lines for every 100 people. There are five million telephone lines in Indonesia for a population of almost 200 million. In Jakarta the fixed telephone line density now stands at 11 per 100 people.

Indonesia is currently developing telecommunications networks and infrastructure -- including fiber optics, submarine cables, terrestrial gateways and satellites -- for both fixed telecommunications lines and cellular services.

The government has predicted that the total population in Indonesia in 2020 will exceed 250 million, while the number of fixed telephone lines in that year should reach at least 20 percent of the total population, while the number of mobile cellular telephone lines should be between 10 percent and 20 percent of the country's total number of telephone lines.

Compared with Japan and most countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Indonesia still lags in terms of telephone line density. The figure in Indonesia is less than 1.8 per hundred people; in Singapore it is 46, 13 in Thailand and 6.5 in Malaysia.

The government will have to work hard to reach a ratio of four fixed telephone lines for each 100 people by 1998, and 10 per 100 people by 2000 in order to reach the ratio of 20 per 100 people by 2020 according to analysts.

The quality is also still low and the country's dependency on imported technology and equipment is high.

Furthermore, suitably qualified human resources will be needed to support and maintain the project and the telecommunications industry in general.

Nusantara 21 will include Archipelagic Super-lane, Multimedia Cities and Nusantara Multimedia Community Access Centers.

Archipelagic Super-lane will connect the 27 provincial capitals with backbone transmission facilities.

Multimedia Cities will cover big and small cities' commercial and economic centers with fiber optics and medium and wide-band. The number of the Multimedia cities will increase gradually to develop into a "telecommuting" (long-distance working) system.

Nusantara Multimedia Community Access Centers is set to provide the concept of community access centers, including broadband pay-phones, broadband business centers, multimedia community kiosks and networked e-library.

Any satellites, including the Palapa-B, Palapa-C1 and Palapa- C2 series, Garuda and other personal communications service satellites to be operated by the country will facilitate this access.

Agrarian society in Indonesia will be able to have voice- riched community links, a system offering efficient information and technology applications.

The development scheme of Nusantara 21 will also depend on proper regulations. Telecommunications laws, broadcasting bills and rules on copy rights will all influence the project.