If we put Indonesia in its global context, we quickly realize that there is a problem for it. According to the global Speedtest index, Indonesia ranks 97th.th in terms of mobile download speed, and 127th in terms of fixed broadband download speed.
So, despite significant expansion by the Indonesian government (which includes the Palapa Ring project), state-owned enterprises (such as Telekomunikasi Indonesia, better known as Telkom Indonesia) and large private sector players (such as Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison and XL Axiata) over the past two decades, there are a number of challenges we face that are hampering faster progress.
The biggest challenge is Indonesia’s enormous size and geographical composition (consisting of thousands of islands separated by water or sea). In addition, there are several isolated regions where high mountains or cliffs and dense rainforests make it extremely difficult to lay a terrestrial fiber optic cable network. And since the country is shaped like an archipelago, Indonesia relies on submarine fiber optic cables. However, laying cables in water is also not without risks, as many waters are subject to high human activity (such as fishing, anchoring, and dredging) as well as seismic activity (earthquakes).
With the internet infrastructure being more complex in a country like Indonesia, where the population is spread out across this vast archipelago, access to the internet also becomes much more expensive. According to a study conducted by Cloudflare, a US provider of security and networking products, the cost of bandwidth in Indonesia is 43 times higher than in North America or Europe, and is also several times higher than in other Asian countries.
Sarwoto Atmosutarno, a member of the special cabinet of the Indonesian Minister of Communication and Information Technology, recently said that “[…] “In terms of connectivity, the coverage and speed of the internet in Indonesia still needs to be improved. Several challenges need to be overcome to improve internet connectivity in Indonesia, such as the high cost of fiber optic deployment, the distribution of fiber optic concentrated in major cities, and licensing barriers.”
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