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Govt to expand broadband connectivity as internet use grows
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Breakthrough – The Palapa satellite (pictured) is part of the Rp 2.7 trillion (US$207 million) Palapa Ring broadband infrastructure project, which is hoped to close the gap of internet access between rural and urban areas of Indonesia. (tempo.co/-)
T
he government is speeding up the expansion of broadband connections to keep up with a steadily increasing number of internet users in Indonesia.
Samuel A. Pangerapan, the director general of applied informatics at the Ministry of Communications and Information, noted increasing demand for better internet connectivity concomitant with the surging use of the internet.
“We will continue the expansion of broadband infrastructure,” Samuel said in a press release made available to The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
His statement came in light of the near completion of the telecommunication infrastructure project Palapa Ring, which is expected to reduce the digital divide in the country.
The government claimed that the Palapa Ring project would connect 17,000 islands throughout the country upon its completion in 2019.
Construction for the project commenced in 2016 with the aim to expand nationwide broadband services, including in the remote and outermost areas of the country, with 11,000 kilometers of undersea fiber-optic cables.
According to a study conducted by the Association of Indonesian Internet Service Providers (APJII), about half of the country's population were connected to the internet as of 2017. The study shows that 143 million people in Indonesia used the Internet in 2017, up by 10.56 million within only a year. The study further shows that 74.62 percent of the users are from the middle class and another 16.02 percent are from the upper-middle class.
The study is available online at APJII.or.id. (gis/swd)
