resident Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has said Indonesia’s Palapa Ring project will provide high-speed internet services and connect 17,000 islands throughout the country by 2019.
“This will unite us in the future. Connectivity is not only about ports and toll roads. This is also about an information highway that is necessary for our future,” said Jokowi about a broadband infrastructure construction project during a meeting at the State Palace in Jakarta on Thursday.
Communications and Information Minister Rudiantara said the Palapa Ring project would connect 514 regencies and cities through broadband connection and offer faster communication services throughout the country by 2019.
The minister further explained that currently, the average download speed in Jakarta was about 7 megabits per second (mbps), equal to the download speed in Los Angeles, the US. Meanwhile in Papua, he said, the average download speed was only about 300 kilobits per second.
Rudiantara said that after the completion of the Palapa Ring project, the mobile download speed in rural areas would be 1 mbps and higher in the cities, which would be up to 20 mbps.
"That's our goal. If we do not do this we will be left behind other countries. All 514 regencies and cities across the country will be connected through broadband by 2019," he said. (ebf)
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