'Use satellite link for 50m Net users'

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Information and technology experts said satellite high-speed broadband internet connection would provide a cheaper and more reliable service for up to 50 million potential national users.

"The use of wireless wimax and wifi services and cdma (data transfer system) to replace the more expensive GPRS (data transfer system with different technology) and the dial-up system was to decrease access costs," Armein Langi of the Bandung Institute of Technology told a discussion held by The Habibie Center Foundation here Thursday.

"Satellite broadband connection will cost a user less than US$10 per month for 24-hour unlimited access," he said.

Teguh Prasetya from PT Indosat told The Jakarta Post, "It takes around US$100 to start up investment on broadband connections for each house, while some US$1,000 is needed to start up the dial-up system for each house".

The Habibie Center in cooperation with the Information and Communication Ministry and Investor Groups against Digital Divide (IGADD) discussed the obstacles and recommendations around implementing broadband internet connections in Indonesia.

"We (want) to reach 20 percent of the country's population (to) provide affordable high-speed broadband internet access by 2012," Ilham Akbar Habibie, Chairman for the Institute for Democratization and Socialization of Technology-The Habibie Center (IDST-THC) said during his opening speech.

The discussion was called "Democracy 2.0: Enhancing Citizen Participation" and it was held in response to the government's program to expand information access for the entire society.

Associate Director for Research at The Habibie Center Dewi Fortuna Anwar said the use of technology was expected to stimulate the growth of democracy in the country.

"Our education system does not teach us to be outspoken," Dewi said.

"The top-down leadership or authoritarian style of government does not let our voice be heard.

"This is our challenge on how to change the people's mindset."

Palgunadi T. Setiawan, a businessman and financial spokesman for the discussion, said limited infrastructure would be one important obstacle to overcome.

"We are facing a problem of limited availability of cheap (computer) terminals and a lack of infrastructure, especially in rural areas," he said.

"We also need to provide internet technology, e-commerce (online trading) ... which is compatible with people's business scale or the availability of infrastructures in rural areas."

Palgunadi said widespread promotion of online services was needed, especially for the rural population, to show the business advantages technology could provide. (rff)