Villages to get new phone lines
Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
The government expects to complete by the end of the year the installation of some 3,500 new fixed telephone lines in rural areas across the country, which is the second phase of a Rp 475 billion (US$51.26 million) telecommunications project.
"The government has allocated Rp 45 billion to finance this second phase. Sixty percent of the new lines will be installed in villages in eastern Indonesia," the Ministry of Communications' Director General of Post and Telecommunication Djamhari Sirat said on Tuesday.
Djamhari expects that starting from the third phase next year until completion, the government will have additional funds from phone operators to meet the target of providing at least one fixed line for each of around 43,000 villages across the country that have yet to obtain access to phone services.
"Telecom operators will be obliged to allocate 0.75 percent of their annual revenue to finance the project. We're still waiting for a presidential decree to regulate this obligation. Hopefully, it will be issued before the third phase starts next year," Djamhari said.
This year's installation is the second after the government established 3,010 fixed lines last year. A total of 1,009 lines were installed on Sumatra island, 40 lines in Banten province, 573 lines in Kalimantan and 1,388 across eastern parts of the country.
The first installation was conducted by PT Pasifik Satelit Nusantara, which used Portable Fixed Satellite technology, and PT Citra Sari Makmur, which used Very Small Aperture Terminal technology.
Susilo Hartono, the director of telecommunications and information at the ministry, said the government was conducting auctions to decide which companies would carry out the second- phase installment.
He added that for the second phase, the government planned to also use new technologies such as radio, cellular and internet protocol due to geographical considerations.
The telecommunications project -- which was first announced on Aug. 19, 2003 -- is part of the implementation of the Universal Service Obligation (USO) program aimed at providing telephone services for all citizens.
The USO program was agreed upon during the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) conference in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1995, when all countries were urged to provide their citizens with basic telecommunications facilities.
The USO program will run in two stages. The first stage is from 2003 to 2010 where the government must establish at least one fixed line in each village, while the second is the development of facilities.
The program could be the only hope for millions of people in remote villages to gain access to the outside world as existing phone operators seem reluctant to provide phone access in such areas due to the likely very low investment return.