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resident Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo officially launched on Friday the country'€™s 4G/LTE telecommunication network, with the expectation that it can help boost e-commerce and the national economy.

'€œThe digital revolution will revolutionize Indonesia'€™s economy,'€ Jokowi said in his brief speech during the launch at the National Museum in Jakarta.

The launch ceremony means the 4G network is available nationwide.

During the ceremony, the capabilities of the new 4G network were showcased by a relatively quick video conference call to several cities including Palembang, South Sumatra; Surabaya, East Java; and Yogyakarta. At the end of the line were small business owners, bloggers and young tech developers.

A representative of Palembang'€™s small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by the name of Anton welcomed the advent of the new 4G network in the call, saying that it would definitely benefit the 2 million SMEs operating in Palembang.

'€œWe the people of South Sumatra welcome the launch of the 4G network on a national scale. We believe that it will be utilized by the SMEs here very well and will improve our business activities in the coming years,'€ he told the audience.

With the basic broadband network infrastructure mostly laid out nationwide, the Communications and Information Technology Ministry aims to use the facility to help boost Indonesia'€™s e-commerce sector and ease digital transactions.

After completing frequency refarming efforts in November to allow a stronger 4G/LTE network across Indonesia, the country'€™s major telecommunications companies have mostly announced their own commercialized versions of the 4G network, each of them putting emphasis on encouraging their customers to switch to the new 4G network and utilizing its capabilities.

Communications and Information Technology Minister Rudiantara said that as the country moved forward into a more integrated digital society, the job now was to continually and steadily improve the network coverage and the bandwidth quality.

By improving network quality and coverage, he said the flourishing Indonesian e-commerce platforms were able to grow further as a result of better infrastructure.

Most major cities across Indonesia have already been fitted with the new 4G/LTE capability according to the major operators.

'€œWe'€™ve completed most of the infrastructure needs, but that doesn'€™t mean we'€™ll stop there. The government is still going to work on the efficient application of the network, especially on how it will benefit the e-commerce sectors and businesses in general,'€ the minister said.

'€œThere needs to be full support for the development of the broadband network to simultaneously boost the prosperity of independent small businesses to become active participants in the digital economy, as well as supporting local app developers and startups so that they can master the market,'€ he added.