Villages to get new phone lines
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.