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tate-owned telecommunication giant PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) has set aside Rp 21.19 trillion (US$233 million) until 2015 to build a national broadband network, called “True broadband”, which will allow customers to access a high speed data service.

True broadband will connect customers to content providers with speeds of up to 20 to 100 Megabits per second (Mbps). Telkom is preparing for the network to cover 497 cities nationwide by the end of 2015.

“By the end of 2015, we are targeting the connection of 13 million home passes with true broadband access. We aim to have an 80 percent subscription rate,” Telkom president director Rinaldi Firmansyah told a media conference on Wednesday.

Rinaldi said that Telkom had started the project and had already reached about 1.7 million home passes stretching from Sumatra to Papua.

He said that the broadband network would improve local competitiveness in areas that were currently less developed because of a lack of telecommunication infrastructure.

“True broadband will also support the development of creative industries, especially the information and communication technology (ICT) industry,” Rinaldi said.

“Currently, we see that well-known entrepreneurs come from sectors such as coal and mining. We hope that broadband availability will result in more prominent ICT entrepreneurs in the future, like those in developed countries,” Rinaldi said.

True broadband is a part of Telkom’s efforts to build a backbone of ICT infrastructure based on an optical network platform called the “Nusantara Super Highway,” which is divided into six rings: Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Bali and Nusa Tenggara as well as Maluku island and Papua.

The Nusantara Super Highway is expected to be able to deliver data at speeds of 7-8 Terrabits (Tbps).

Rinaldi revealed that Telkom had completed an optical fiber backbone infrastructure of 26,299 kilometers, which stretched and encircled Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Denpasar, Mataram and Kupang.

He said that Telkom was preparing to work on an optical fiber network from Manado to Papua. The route’s length is 5,693 kilometers of submarine cables, which would pass Ternate, Sorong, Manokwari, Biak, Jayapura, Ambon, Fakfak and Timika.

“The project is called the Sulawesi and Maluku, Papua Cable System (SMPS). We will begin in late of 2012 and expect to finish before the end of 2013,” he said.

“This is our own submersible cable, so we do not have to lease from other countries.”

The backbone and broadband project is aimed at supporting Telkom’s new business portfolio, which relies not only on conventional services but also data services.

“We’ve moved from fixed, mobile and multimedia portfolio (FMM) to telecommunication, information, media and edutainment (TIME). To support the TIME business, we need infrastructure to provide high speed services, especially to meet growing video and internet connection demands,” Rinaldi said,

He added that information, media and edutainment (IME) had contributed between 7 and 9 percent of its revenue in 2008 and 2011 respectively and aimed for 15 percent by 2015.

Rinaldi also said there were four growing services: cloud computing, home digital environment, mobile broadband and machine-to-machine. (rcf)