Cellular operators will soon be required to share their Base Transceiver Station (BTS) towers, the Jakarta administration said Friday.
Deputy Governor Prijanto said the city had to limit the number of BTS towers because there were already more than 2,000 across the city, including in residential areas.
"There are too many of the towers in Jakarta. This city looks like a tower jungle," he said at City Hall.
"Shortly, each tower will have to be shared by at least three cellular operators."
The administration introduced the "shared tower" concept through a 2001 gubernatorial decree stipulating each tower must be used by at least two cellular operators.
In 2006, the administration issued a gubernatorial regulation requiring cellular operators to implement the "shared tower" concept.
The administration's initiatives were welcomed by the central government, with Information and Communications Minister Muhammad Nuh issuing a regulation limiting tower numbers earlier this year.
That regulation serves as a guide to using shared towers.
To reinforce restrictions on numbers of towers in Jakarta, the City Spatial Planning Agency is currently mapping the cellular towers in the city, Prijanto said.
"The administration will decide where a tower can be erected and will let the operators determine which shared towers they want to use," he said.
The agency is also drawing up a design for the establishment and management of the planned shared towers.
"The design will take into account the number of permitted locations for BTS towers and tower signal radii," Prijanto said.
He said the design would also have to factor in airplane safety as electromagnetic transmissions from the towers might interfere with aircraft radars.
Jakarta currently has more than 2,000 BTS towers, about 500 of which were built illegally, according to City Spatial Planning Agency head Wiryatmoko.
Last year, the agency reported it had dismantled 75 towers out of 1,508 towers whose licenses had expired, Prijanto said.
The City Property Management and Control Agency has not issued any licenses to build BTS towers since 2000, according to agency head Hari Sasongko.
"The Property Management and Control Agency only issued temporary licenses before 2000," he said.
Chairman of the city council's Commission D on development, Sayogo Hendrosubroto, said he encouraged the "shared tower" concept.
"It will be cheaper for cellular operators to jointly invest in the construction of one tower, and fewer towers will make the city more aesthetically pleasing," he said.
"In addition, residents will feel relieved when a tower is removed from their neighborhood."
According to media reports, some residents have complained about communication towers in their neighborhood, saying they pose a safety risk.
Last year, a tower belonging to a television station collapsed during strong winds, damaging nearby houses.
Cellular operators support the shared tower concept in principle, said Heru Sutadi, a member of the Indonesian Telecommunications Regulatory Body.
"But some towers cannot be used by more than two operators," he told The Jakarta Post.
"The administration should also allow operators to use one tower each for towers that serve as their backbone networks," he said.
