Telecom industry enters multimedia services

Telecom industry enters multimedia services

By I. Christianto

JAKARTA (JP): Through the rapid development in information and
telecommunications technologies, people have started to change
the way they communicate by applying multimedia, which is now
controlled by the country's telecommunications industry.

The convergence of equipment, services and networks was
inevitable. The components of equipment, which include
telecommunications, computers and videos, have merged. As have
the components of services which include newspaper, movies, cable
television, telecommunications, publishing and broadcasting.

Customers require sophisticated services of high quality,
global coverage and competitive prices. Developing countries are
accelerating telecommunications development to improve service
quality, expand coverage and increase penetration.

The state-owned domestic telecommunications provider PT Telkom
estimated that the definite services of multimedia would be
available in Indonesia by 2005 at the earliest, even though some
applications like Internet, Integrated Services Digital Network
(ISDN) and Intelligent Network (IN) facilities are already in
daily use in big cities.

ISDN is, in general, a network evolving from a telephony
integrated digital network that provides end-to-end digital
connectivity. This then supports a wide range of services,
including voice and non-voice services, to which users have
access by a limited set of standard multipurpose user network
interfaces. The development of ISDN began in the early 1990s.

Internet services were commercially applied in Indonesia in
1994. There are currently more than 20 Internet providers in the
country, with an estimate of dozens of million of people enjoying
the services.

Telkom is also set to launch later this year IN, a service
facilitating information exchange through several systems.

Apart from the existing services, Telkom plans to enter the
multimedia era with the aim of connecting all homes with optical
fiber, replacing its conventional cable networks. The project
will include fiber in the loop, fiber in the curb and fiber in
home installations.

Relying on its digital and fiber-optic networks, Telkom plans
to develop multimedia services in cooperation with private firms.
Cooperation and alliances are a must for Telkom because
multimedia service is a convergence of various items of
businesses.

Telkom has signed a preliminary deal with cellular telephone
operator PT Telekomindo Primabhakti and private TV station PT
Rajawali Citra Televisi to develop the services. Telkom has well-
prepared infrastructure potential for voice and visual image
telecommunications.

Meanwhile, PT Indosat, the state-owned international
telecommunications carrier, is also prepared to set up multimedia
services.

Indosat plans to acquire a number of shares in PT Yasawirya
Tama Cipta, a Jakarta-based private production house which
provides video recordings for television broadcasting and video
technical assistance.

Through participation in the Yasawirya Tama equity, Indosat,
which is listed on the New York and Jakarta stock exchanges,
intends to explore and develop a multimedia business.

Indosat is currently exploring the possibility of providing
multimedia services in the country and has budgeted $13.5 million
for 1996 for the development of a pilot network. The company is
negotiating a deal with Suginamii, a Japanese broadcasting firm.

As an international telecommunications provider, Indosat has
expanded access to fiber optic digital submarine cables by
joining regional and worldwide cable consortia. The participation
will facilitate Indosat, when it enters the multimedia service.

The company participates in several overseas projects
including the Asian Pacific Cable Network, Southeast Asia-Middle
East-Western Europe (Seamewe 3) and Trans Pacific cable (TPC-5).

Asian Pacific Cable Network is a consortium for the
construction and operation of a fiber optic submarine cable
system linking Indonesia, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan and
Australia. The system will be in service in late 1996 or early
1997. TPC is a 24,500-kilometer submarine cable which will link
Japan and the United States to be ready in December this year.
Seamewe 3 is a consortium of several telecommunication firms
which will install a new high-capacity fiber-optic submarine
cable system linking Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent, the
Middle East and western Europe. The project is expected to be in
service in 1998.

Broadband

Development in technology has the ability to facilitate the
multimedia service. The country has adapted digital technology
which enables service integration, improved transmission quality
and expanded transmission capacity.

Computer and telecommunications technology enables new service
development and sophistication. Satellite technology enables
worldwide coverage and multiservice transmission. Optical fiber
technology provides high capacity transmission facilities.

Optical fiber prepared by the telecommunications companies
will facilitate better services of the multimedia.

A senior general manager of Telkom, Suryatin Setiawan, said
that Indonesia is now entering the broadband telecommunications
era.

"The applications of ISDN and IN is now utilizing the
narrowband, which doesn't need fiber optic. But due to the
limited bandwidth we enter broadband communications."

Broadband will be necessary for the telecommunications of
video, television broadcasting and high definition television.

A director of Indosat, Bambang Sulistyo, said that if a
digital telephone transmission just needs 64 kilobits per second
(kbps) current, the transmission of video communications will
need folded 64 kbps currents.

Normally, low speed data and telephone transmission work on 64
the kbps current, while still images, video conference and
television broadcasting uses megabytes and three dimensional
television will use gigabits.

Participants

There are currently about three million telephone lines which
were installed by Telkom, which plans to install another five
million lines by 1999. The rate of telephone density is still low
in Indonesia, which reaches only 1.65 lines per hundred people.

Apart from telephone networks, the utilization of customer
terminals which include home televisions, direct to home
televisions (satellite dishes), videocassette recorders (VCR) and
personal computers should also be considered in entering the
multimedia service.

There is no accurate data on the density and penetration of
home television, VCR and direct to home televisions and personal
computers in Indonesia.

Major participants in multimedia are content providers which
include film studios, printing media, television broadcasters,
production houses, news agencies and information providers like
research institutes and software houses.

There are currently more than 300 printing media (newspapers,
magazines and bulletins) and more than 600 commercial radio
stations operating in Indonesia. There are five private
television broadcasting firms currently in operation in the
country.

In addition to RCTI, ANteve, SCTV, Indosiar and TPI, the
government has also licensed other firms to operate television
stations, including PT Merdeka Citra Televisi in Semarang,
Central Java, PT Cakrawala Bumi Sriwijaya in Palembang, South
Sumatra, PT Ramako Indotelevisi in Batam, Riau and PT Sanitya
Mandara in Yogyakarta. However, the latter firms have not started
operations since their permits were issued in the early 1990s.

In the meantime, there is currently Indovision, a company
which runs cable television in the country. Through a satellite
system, Indovision, an affiliate of PT Matahari Lintas Cakrawala,
offers several channels of overseas programs including CNN, TNT
Cartoons Network, Discovery, ESPN and HBO. A Matahari Lintas
subsidiary plans to operate its own direct broadcast system
satellite.

Such related businesses will support the multimedia because
the convergence of equipment, services, content and networks is
inevitable for the new facility.

Multimedia is one of the few dominant themes in the ongoing
debates over the future of network communications.

A system of multimedia will allow people to simulate operating
stores via computer networks. The participants will be able to
design stores, draw up management plans and select goods to be
sold. Multimedia usually comprises such things as video-on-demand
and on-line shopping. But several new concepts are coming,
including "edutainment" (an educational software for children to
spend up learning basic skills), "telecooperation" (long-distance
cooperation) and "hypermedia".