A study conducted by mobile analytics firm OpenSignal has found that the average mobile broadband speed in Java, long thought to be the center of national development, has been lagging behind several other, comparatively remote regions across the country.

The study shows that Sorong in West Papua is the region with the highest download speed, alongside Gorontalo in Sulawesi and Ambon in Maluku. The three regions have an average download speed of over 11 megabytes per second (Mbps), according to OpenSignal. 

In addition, the study also shows that Pekanbaru in Riau has the highest average upload speed in the country of over 5.9 Mbps. 

Meanwhile, several notable cities in Java are found to have slower mobile broadband speeds. Bandung in West Java, Malang in East Java, and Yogyakarta in Central Java rank 14th, 15th and 18th respectively on OpenSignal’s list.

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The capital city of Jakarta ranks lower on the list as it has an average download speed of 7.8 Mbps, about 4 Mbps slower than the top-ranking cities. The city also only has an average upload speed of 3.5 Mbps, making it 2 Mbps slower than the top-ranking cities. 

Recent consumer demand for higher mobile broadband speeds across the archipelago have made the country’s prominent mobile providers such as Telkomsel focus on increasing broadband speeds in regions outside Java, the study finds. (rfa/kes)