Tens Of Thousands Of Villages In Indonesia Are Still Untouched By The Internet Network

Infrastructure internet (unsplash)

JAKARTA - Based on a survey conducted by the Indonesian Internet Service Providers Association (APJII), an estimated 196.7 million people are connected to the internet. Despite experiencing significant growth, in fact many villages are not yet connected to internet infrastructure.

"The increase in internet users to 73 percent is a pretty good number, but it is undeniable that there are approximately 12,500 villages that currently do not have internet connection," said the Chairman of APJII Jamalul Izza in his report, Tuesday, December 15.

Izza said there are many difficulties in developing internet infrastructure in Indonesia. One of them, Indonesia's geography is quite different from other countries.

The plan, said Izza, in 2021 that the government will be more concerned with internet penetration in rural areas, through our program, namely Desa Internet Mandiri 2020 which has been launched from 2019.

"The location, which is mountainous, sea, islands is a tough challenge for Indonesia, but actually we already have technologies that we can rely on to penetrate the internet, our target is that in 2022 all regions are already on the internet," he explained.

A similar statement was also made by the GM Future Network Project of Telkomsel, Ronald Limoa, who admitted that geographical constraints are indeed the main problem for internet networks to remote areas of Indonesia.

Therefore, innovation from operators is needed so that the services needed by the community in these areas can be delivered, and are not hindered by supporting infrastructure, such as electricity.

"Telkomesel in this case, has built solar power plants or even in areas where the river flow is good, we are also developing a Micro Hydro Power Plant (PLTMH), we have developed it," said Ronald.

Meanwhile, the Director General of Post and Information Technology at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Ahmad M Ramli, also touched on the most crucial issues, such as calling on local governments to have views that are in line with the central government, even needing to have a multiplayer effect vision.

"For example, only thinking about obtaining Regional Original Revenue (PAD) from infrastructure deployment and so on, it is too small. But if you think about the reach of telecommunication services that affect the community's economy, public services will run well, of course it is much more beneficial, "Said Ismail.