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Indonesia launches digital TV, embarks on campaign to provide phone and Web
Indonesia is entering a new phase of information and communication technology (ICT), with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono officiating Wednesday the migration of the country's television broadcasting system from analog to digital
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Indonesia is entering a new phase of information and communication technology (ICT), with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono officiating Wednesday the migration of the country's television broadcasting system from analog to digital.
Information and Communications Minister Mohammad Nuh dubbed the migration the third phase in Indonesia's broadcasting system development, with the first occurring in 1962, when then president Sukarno officiated the country's premier TV broadcasting ahead of the Asian Games; and the second in 1976, when then president Soeharto launched the Palapa I telecommunication satellite.
"And this year, today, on the 101st anniversary of National Awakening Day, we enter the new phase: the digital TV system," Nuh said in his opening speech at the inauguration ceremony.
In digital TV technology, sound and images are converted into a digital format and compressed, taking up less space when transmitted than they needed in the old analog system. This allows more channels to be sent out.
Digital signals are picked up by standard aerials, satellite dishes or through cable.
The technology has considerably more benefits than the analog system, including resilience to interference, noise, fading and environmental changes; efficiency in bandwidth, network transmission, transmission power and power consumption; and capacity to fit several channels into one single frequency.
Digital broadcasting has been in experimental use here since January by state TV station TVRI and private broadcaster SCTV.
The government expects all broadcasters to migrate to the digital system by 2018.
People can still enjoy the free analog system until 2014, after which they must buy digital TV sets or equip their old TV sets with a separate set-top box to be able to receive digital TV programs.
Nuh said the set-top box would convert digital signals into sound and images, and allow concerned parties to see which programs or stations were being watched by viewers across the country.
Data from the Information and Communications Ministry shows there are about 40 million TV sets in Indonesia, viewed by more than 200 million people.
During Wednesday's ceremony, Yudhoyono also officiated the government's Universal Service Obligation (USO) program to provide nationwide phone and Internet connectivity.
Nuh said 31,000 of Indonesia's 72,000 subdistricts had yet to receive access to telecommunication facilities.
He added that in 2009, most of the deprived subdistricts would have access to phone and Internet connections; and that by mid 2010 they would all be connected.
"The government is strongly committed to resolving this *telecommunication infrastructure problem*," Nuh said.
"And along with settling problems with the availability *of ICT infrastructure and facilities*, the government has also issued a regulation to make telecommunication services affordable to the public."
The regulation included mobile phone rate cuts that helped turn Indonesia from being a country with most expensive mobile phone rates in Asia in 2005 into that with most affordable rates by 2008.
