RI's multimedia access lowest in SE Asia: ITU

By I Christianto

GENEVA (JP): Indonesia has the lowest level of multimedia access in Southeast Asia, according to a recent report published by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).

Based on the report, "Challenging to the Network: Telecommunications and the Internet" Indonesia was ranked 44th out of 45 nations reviewed by the ITU.

This makes multimedia access in Indonesia one of the lowest in the world.

The report coincides with TELECOM Interactive 1997, the first exhibition and forum of its kind ever held. The event is being held at the Palexpo here from Sept. 8 to Sept. 14.

The report focuses on the Internet, particularly its relationship with the telecommunications industry.

"The development and growth of the Internet is arguably the biggest single challenge that the telecommunications sector faces in the last years of the 20th century. But it's also the biggest opportunity," the report said.

Internet and public telecommunications services are offered over the same public network, with the same mix of copper, fiber optics and satellite connections. The applications offered are also becoming increasingly similar: interactive, digital and real time information services.

The multimedia access ranking was based on penetration of telephone line density, TV set density and Internet host density.

Telephone line and TV set density represent the figures of a main telephone line and a TV set per 100 inhabitants, while Internet density is derived by dividing the number of Internet host computers in a country or a region by the population, and multiplying the result by 10,000.

Each item is ranked separately and then the total is calculated for each rank.

The report shows that Indonesia's telephone main line density in 1996 was 2.1, while TV sets density in 1995 and Internet hosts density in 1996 were 18.3 and 0.005, respectively.

Indonesia was ranked 44th, slightly above India (45th place) whose figures were 1.5, 6.1 and 0.

Singapore was ranked 19th with 51.3 (telephone main line density), 36.2 (TV sets density) and 0.95 (Internet hosts density). Malaysia ranked 38th (18.3, 22.4 and 0.02), Thailand 40th (7, 22.7 and 0.02) and the Philippines 43rd (2.6, 12.6 and 0.005).

Other Asian nations in the report included Japan (ranked 16th with 49.7, 68.3 and 0.59), Hong Kong 18th (54.7, 36.6 and 0.78), Taiwan 28th (46.6, 31.7 and 0.16), Korea 30th (43.3, 32.1 and 0.15) and China 42nd (4.5, 24.7 and 0.002).

The report said even among major economies there are considerable variations in the degree of Internet availability and the networks over which it runs.

The United States (64.7, 77.6 and 3.81) and Canada (60.3, 65.6 and 2.01) have the highest level of multimedia access, while Scandinavian countries dominated the next four ranks, including Norway (56.3, 56.1 and 3.91), Finland (54.8, 51.9 and 5.52), Denmark (61.5, 53.3 and 2.01) and Sweden (67.6, 47.6 and 2.61).

Luxembourg, Iceland, Switzerland and Australia were ranked seventh to 10th place.