By PT Telekom

Jakarta – PT. Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk (Telkom) will immediately build optical fibre backbone in Eastern Territory of Indonesia by taking part in Palapa Ring configuration passing through the routes of Mataram-Kupang, Manado-Sorong, and Fakfak-Makassar.

For the first stage, in October 2009 Telkom will build Mataram Kupang Cable System along 1,041 kilometers at sea with 6 Landing Points at the cities of Mataram, Sumbawa Besar, Raba, Waingapu and Kupang, and 810 kilometers (inland) with 15 nodes at the cities of Mataram, Pringgabaya, Newmont, Taliwang, Sumbawa Besar, Ampang, Dompu, Raba, Labuhan Bajo, Ruteng, Bajawa, Ende, Maumere, Waingapu, and Kupang.”As in our initial commitment, Telkom remains to continue building of optical fibre backbone in Eastern Territory of Indonesia, although consortium of Palapa Ring project itself has not run as expected,” said Vice President Public and Marketing Communications Telkom, Eddy Kurnia. He emphasized that this project was purely an initiative of Telkom and run by Telkom expected to complete at end of September 2010.

Palapa Ring itselt is a huge project of building optical fibre backbone initiated by the government (Cq. Menkominfo) consisting of 35,280 kilometers of submarine cable and 21,708 kilometers of inland cable. Backbone cable consisting of 7 ring covers 33 provinces and 460 districts in Eastern Territory of Indonesia. In the near future, Telkom will start to build a link connecting Mataram and Kupang.

For Telkom, construction of telecommunications infrastructure in Eastern Territory of Indonesia has a very strategic value. Fortunately, development of telecommunications sector in Eastern Territory of Indonesia is not as fast as in the western part considering the difficult condition. Aside from such broad territory, Eastern Territory of Indonesia consists of thousands of big and small islands. “Geographical constraint we are facing is very challenging,” said Eddy Kurnia.The existence of an integrated optical fibre backbone in Eastern Territory of Indonesia today is very urgent. “Optical fibre backbone we build with Palapa Ring configuration is expected to be a comprehensive solution to the isolated Eastern Territory of Indonesia from telecommunications coverage, and at the same time to more strengthen and facilitate Telkom in developing various InfoCom services in the territory,” he said.

The existence of telecommunications backbone with Palapa Ring configuration will be more stimulate development of various InfoCom services to support economy of Eastern Territory of Indonesia, and expected that it will be more eliminating digital divide, particularly in small towns spread in the islands.

Besides, this backbone is also expected to increase number of access points to broadband network; to support competitive chance and business prospects in remote areas in Indonesia; to provide more efficient, safe, and widely coverable communication for the public and also the government including TNI (army), POLRI (Police), meteorology, crisis prevention, and corporate and residential subscribers; to eliminate communication cost in coverage areas and to support the use of broadband access; and to meet telecommunications needs today and in the future that depends on the broadband.