The Ministry of Communication and Information
Technology said that by the end of this year every subdistrict in Indonesia
would be connected to the Internet.
“We
have to have 100 percent [connectivity] this year,” Ashwin Sasongko, the
ministry’s director general of IT applications, said on Tuesday.
Ashwin
said that although his office had not received information about the progress
of the subdistrict Internet Service Provision (PLIK) program, he was certain
the goal of connecting all 6,468 subdistricts to the Internet would be
achieved.
The
ministry first launched the program in early 2010 to bridge Indonesia’s
Internet divide. It’s an ambitious plan, considering Indonesia comprises 17,000
islands. Many subdistricts are underdeveloped, with poor infrastructure and
access to roads, not to mention the Internet.
In
2011, the ministry introduced Mobile Internet Service Centers (MPILKs), which
are essentially small buses equipped with six laptop computers with a satellite
Internet connection. Each unit also features a 124-centimeter flat-screen
television and a telephone line.
Ashwin
said that there have so far been 5,748 MPILKs, each dedicated to a single
subdistrict. Each unit costs around Rp 500 million ($54,500), and funds are
collected from cellular and Internet providers operating in Indonesia, he said.
“Each
[provider] contributes 1.5 percent of its profit [for the program],” he said.
Ashwin
was speaking on the sidelines of the 2012 Indonesia ICT Awards (Inaicta) whose
purpose is to honor some of the country’s brightest minds for their
achievements in mobile application and software development.
Inaicta
organizer Haryawirasma said the event would attract Indonesian programers to
develop their own mobile applications and tap into the lucrative and growing
industry.
According
to a study by New York-based ABI Research, there were 29 billion downloads of
mobile applications worldwide last year compared to only 9 billion in 2010.
“If
Indonesia can tap just 0.5 percent, which is 145 million downloads ... [local
developers] can generate Rp 145 billion,” Haryawirasma said.
But
developers say piracy still poses a big threat to developers in Indonesia,
which for several years has been on the US Trade Representative’s priority
watch list for copyright infringement
“There
must be protection for people’s work. If [a developer] is certain his idea is
protected then he will not be afraid to make innovative creations,” said Rama
Mamuaya, CEO of DailySocial.net.
Ismira
Lutfia & Antara
The
Jakarta Globe
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