INDONESIA Information Technology Activities - Get as DOC

							INDONESIA: Information Technology Activities.
by Geoff Long (glong@peg.apc.org) and Onno W. Purbo (onno@itb.ac.id)

OVERVIEW
Indonesia, with the world's fourth largest population (200 million), consists of some 13,667
islands, six major religions, and more than 300 ethnic groups. Extending telecommunications to
all 27 provinces and each of the main islands is a daunting task but one which Indonesia has
embraced, particularly as a means of creating national cohesion. The need to provide
communications for development and modernisation was recognised more than 20 years ago,
with the launch of Indonesia's domestic satellite, Palapa, in 1976. Many developments have
occurred in the intervening years, however, the current economic crisis has added a level of
uncertainty to many business and government initiatives. Indonesia's national information
infrastructure (NII) is being developed under a program known as Nusantara 21, which calls for
all major islands and cities to be linked either by submarine and terrestrial cable or by satellite by
the year 2001. Whether this occurs or not will depend largely on how quickly the country's
economy is restored. In particular, the devaluing of the rupiah means that most capital purchases
will be delayed. Already a major plank of the country's telecommunications development, the
joint operation schemes (JOS), known in Indonesia as Kerja Sama Operasi (KSO), have been
renegotiated. The joint ventures between Indonesia's Telkom and foreign telecommunications
operators were being used to increase telecommunications capacity in five regions However, an
MoU between Telkom and the investors in the scheme in June 1998 was signed that cuts back on
the minimum number of lines that need to be installed in an effort to retain its longer term
viability. Telecommunications growth in the public network of more than 25 per cent was
recorded in the last five years and services are provided by a mix of land-based and
radio/satellite-based services. The sector has been liberalised in recent years, although is still
dominated by three companies: Telkom, which is the major domestic carrier; Satelindo, which
runs the Palapa satellite network as well as other domestic and international services; and
Indosat, the country's main international carrier. IT subjects are widely taught in schools and
universities and an association of more than 100 computer colleges has been found.
Unfortunately, skills in Internet and networking technologies are lagging. There are numerous
local computer vendors and some equipment is made or assembled in Indonesia. Prices before
the economic crisis were on par with countries such as Singapore, but inflation and the
devalued rupiah mean that equipment is now much more expensive.

REGULATORY ENVIRONMENT
Internet regulation is the responsibility of the Directorate General of Posts and
Telecommunications, although as yet a firm policy has not been finalised. The directorate is
looking at overseas experiences to find a model for regulating the Internet and a number of
organisations within the country are currently drafting policies. One such organisation is YLTI,
or the Foundation for Telecommunication and Informatic Research (ylti@telkom.co.id). The
government has opened up the ISP sector in recent years, with 47 companies now licensed to
offer Internet access. Potential ISPs must first put forward a business plan to the DGPT. Once
accepted, the ISPs are required to forward regular reports of their operations to the DGPT. The
government also takes one per cent of revenue generated. There are no laws prohibiting voice
over Internet services and some ISPs are currently looking at this option. Electronic commerce
comes under the control of the Ministry of Trade.
The country top-level domain was administered by the University of Indonesia at
www.idnic.net.id. However, at the moment, IANA is taking back full responsibility of the
country top-level domain. The primary DNS server for Indonesia is currently being moved from
Australia to Indosat's network operations centre in Jakarta.

INTERNET CONNECTIVITY
Moves to setup Internet infrastructure have come from the commercial, education, and
government sectors, although sometimes the initiatives are overlapping. Perhaps the most change
has been seen in the commercial sector as a response to the economic crisis. While ISPs had for
many years resisted attempts to connect their operations through a common Internet exchange,
the value of the rupiah has meant that it is no longer feasible for each ISP to have a separate
leased line. As a result, most of the ISPs now share three common lines that connect TelkomNet
Internet Exchange (IX), IndosatNet IX as well as the newly formed Indonesian Internet
Exchange (IIX) to the Internet backbone in the US. As well as being more economical for ISPs,
the primary goal of the Internet exchange is to keep intra-Indonesian traffic within the country,
rather than have it routed via the US or other countries. The IIX, which was implemented by the
Indonesian Internet Service Provider Association (APJII), interconnects the sites of the three
main telecommunications providers: Telkom, Satelindo, and Indosat. It is connected
internationally via a 2Mb line that connects Indosat to MCI and Global-One in the US as well as
to SingNet. The IIX was designed for a 34Mbps connection and will be upgraded gradually. In
addition APJII is currently looking at peering options with other backbone operators in the Asia
Pacific region, most likely in the US and Australia to begin with. Of the 47 licensed ISPs, only
25 are active, but most of these are now connected to the IXs. Prior to the economic crisis, many
of these ISPs had their own leased lines and it can be expected that in future many will re-
establish their own direct connection in addition to the connection via the IIX. In terms of
coverage and subscribers, the largest ISPs are RADnet, Indo.net, and CBNnet, which were
among the first to obtain licences from the DGPT. These three also still run their own leased
lines in addition to being connected to the IIX.Telkomnet (run by Telkom's multimedia division)
and Centrin Internet also have significant operations. TelkomNet IX is currently serving 13 ISP.
Wasantara Net is a nationwide network of access points operated by the country's postal service,
PT. Pos Indonesia. Using a VSAT satellite network, Wasantara Net has a large number of public
access points in post offices throughout the country. Another major player is PT Aplikanusa
Lintasarta (Lintasarta), which was originally formed to support IT services for the banking
industry. The company also offers public X.25 services in 11 major cities, a wide range of data
networking and VSATservices. More recently it has started to offer Internet access under the
brand name of Idola. Indosat, the main international telecommunications carrier in Indonesia,
also has an Internet service under the name Indosatnet.

There are 7+ licensed for wireless data network operators granted by the government at least 3+
operators are in operation. A wireless option is the cellular digital packet data (CDPD) network
operated by Ratelindo. It allows mobile devices to connect to a dedicated data network,
overlayed across Ratelindo's existing cellular voice network, at speeds up to 19.2kbps. The
service is only available in Jakarta. Another wirelss data network is opetrated Infokom
Elektrindo Nusantara known under Internet domain mobilenet.co.id. It is based on DataTAC
Motorola, it runs at 19.2Kbps & currently serving Jakarta, Bandung & Singapore.
The education sector in Indonesia is very active and has suffered less from the economic fallout.
It should also be noted that the education and commercial sectors are sometimes at odds
regarding Internet issues. Two of the most prominent organisations are the Bandung Institute of
Technology (ITB www.itb.ac.id) and the University of Indonesia (UI www.ui.ac.id) in Jakarta,
both of which have a pool of Internet-skilled staff.

The Institute of Technology in Bandung (ITB) also operates an Internet exchange for the
education sector, which is connected via a 1.5Mb link to the Asia Pacific AIII backbone
connected to WIDE Project in Japan. ITB also has a 2Mb link directly to TelkomNet Internet
Exchange (IX) where 13 of Indonesian commercial ISP are located. More than half of the
country's (around 27) universities are connected to the exchange, while the others go through a
commercial ISP for connectivity.

The AIII Indonesia is the name of the Indonesian education network which are using ITB
(http://ai3.itb.ac.id ) as their main gateway to Internet. Started from 1200bps AX.25 network in
1993, it is currently the largest educational network in Indonesia & currently serving 25+
educational institutions connected via various media such as WaveLAN 2Mbps, Telkom Fiber
Optics 128-512kbps, Elektrindo Nusantara VSAT 19.2-128Kbps. Expansion of AIII Indonesia
network is currently underway in several areas, such as,
 Universities in Sumatra Island in collaboration with UNILA (www.unila.ac.id) , Telkom
    DIVNet, Telkm DIVRe 1 and JICA funded HEDS Project.
 Bali Island in collaboration with YWCN (www.ywcn.or.id)
 Several univesities (in Sumatra, Jawa & Lombok) under DUE Project funded by World
    Bank.
 We do expect the help from CIDA funded EIUDP for integrating the eastern Indonesian
    universities into Internet.

Because of poor quality local phone lines and limited budget, the universities have created their
own wireless network that by-passes the local lines (Metropolitan Area Network). It uses
waveLAN technology to connect ten universities at speeds up to 2Mbps. To extend the scope of
the network beyond the ten universities, an innovative network will be built utilising Indonsian-
made radio modems that will allow other universities to connect at 64-256kbps. The circuit
boards for the modems are being designed and manufactured at the Institute of Technology and
can be made for around $100 each. The network will use Citizen Band (CB) and ham radio
frequencies in the VHF 140MHz band at 64Kbps

In the government sector, the most significant network is Iptek-Net, the original gateway to the
Internet in Indonesia which was originally conceived as a science and technology networking
initiative. It serves many government departments, although it is no longer the country's sole
Internet gateway. Iptek-Net has been developed by the Indonesia National Research Council at
the Ministry of Science and Technology and provides services to government departments,
research organisations, and educational institutions.

The Canadian National Research Council (NRC) is currently supporting the establishment of
Canada Indonesia Technology Network (CITN) at http://orca.fastfwd.com/futureworks/ It will be
linked to the Canada Technology Network (CTN). It is a collaboration effort between NRC &
BPPT (Ministry of Science & Technology). The aim is to help SMEs via Information
Technology by linking the information resources in educational sectors, NGOs and Goverment
R&D for the SMEs.

CONTENT INITIATIVES
There are a number of sites which attempt to aggregate the main Indonesian web content. On a
general level, one of the most comprehensive is Indocenter, which was developed by Radnet. It
lists sites by category and also has some good media resources which includes some mainstream
magazines and newspapers. Similar sites that list Indonesian links by category are Indonesia
Interactive (www.i-2.co.id), CBNnet (www.cbn.net.id), and Idola (www.idola.net.id). A good
source of news is the interactive version of Tempo, a magazine that had previously been banned
in print form in Indonesia but allowed to continue on the web. It has news in both English and
Indonesian, although not all Indonesian stories are translated into English.

For development related links, the UNDP Indonesia site has a comprehensive list of sites that are
divided into useful categories. It also has links to other UN-related sites in Indonesia. For issues
on sustainable development, the Sustainable Development Networking Programmme (SDNP-
Indonesia) is a good source of both local and international information. SDNP is no longer
receiving any funding from UNDP.

The Environmental Impact Management Agency (Bapedal www.bapedal.go.id) is a government
agency with the task of managing environmental impacts through the control of pollution and
environmental damage, as well as issues relating to environmental rehabilitation. Its web site,
which is in both Indonesian and English, has many resources related to environmental issues,
with links to news, research, services, and other relevant Internet resources.

The Urban and Regional Development Institute (URDI) is an independent institute aiming to
cooperate with government, community groups, and the private sector in the field of urban and
regional development in Indonesia. It undertakes research and policy analysis and provides a
number of data services including a database of relevant expertise as well as lists of publications.
Its web site also allows you to search the URDI library, which contains more than 500 books and
study reports.

In the educational sector, we have several major activities going on most of them are initiated by
AI3 Indonesia led by ITB. Some examples are:
 Effort to link CDS/ISIS library database is currently done using WAIS-CDS/ISIS Web on
    http://www.lib.itb.ac.id/search.html and linking 7+ CDS/ISIS library database including one
    in Italy. Work is currently underways to link teh databases of many Indonesian major
    libraries.
 Knowledge management to support distance education activities are being developed by
    Computer Network Research Group (CNRG) ITB. at cnrg@itb.ac.id . It is partly supported
    by IBM.
 Link exchange of Indonesia Peer Academic Network & Education Link (Indonesia-
    panel@itb.ac.id ) located at http://www2.unpar.ac.id/sql/n21/index.html It aims to enable
    resource sharing among educational institutions over Internet.
   ITB's majordomo@itb.ac.id is currently hosting 150+ Indonesian Internet mailing lists
    serving 15.000+ subscribers It is one of the largest Indonesian mailing list service in Internet.
    Some of the mailing lists are archived and serving national policy framework, such as,
    n21@itb.ac.id & n21-sc@itb.ac.id .
   The AIII Indonesia is also supporting the Nusantara-21 on various level including the web
    http://n21.ac-id.net/ and mailing list at n21@itb.ac.id & n21-sc@itb.ac.id

RELATED PROJECTS
Most of Indonesian Internet & Information Technology activities are driven by private and
educational sector. it doesn't mean that there is no government initiatives in this area. Although,
current economic crisis seems to slow down the government efforts.

Back in 1995, researchers at Telkom R&D division (RisTI) proposed a concept for National
Information Infrastructure (NII) called Nusantara-21. Their original concept is focused on
Gigabit fiber optics infrastructure for the country.

Despite, less emphasis on the application of the gigabit infrastructure, their concept has drawn
the attention of many parties, including the Secretrary General of MPPT, World Bank, ADB,
IBM etc. On April 1996, the Indonesian MPPT organized large workshop on Indonesia
Nusantara-21. After the workshop several groups than lead the initiative into several different
paths, i.e.,

   The originator of Nusantara-21 concept is still working to on it & putting their concept on the
    Web at http://www.nusantara21.co.id/ Their main emphasis still remains on Gigabit
    infrastructure not much in the application layer.

   BAPPENAS finances by World Bank is trying to put US$34.5 million (loan) for Information
    Infrastructure Development Program (IIDP). It is mainly focused on regulatory framework,
    network securty & training. One of the activity is Teaching Assistance & Training Program
    (TATP) lead by Ministry of Industry & Trade. We are not sure if the program will still
    continue under current Indonesian economic crisis.

   In 1997, Coordinating Ministry for Production & Industry Ir. Hartarto received the mandate
    from President Soeharto to lead Telematika Indonesia. Today, Mr. Ichyar Musa is trying to
    initiate the Telematika Activities. Their concept is mainly focused on building government
    network infrastructure and more project oriented.

   Mr. J. Parapak sekjen@dppt.wasantara.net.id (now the secretary general for ministry of
    tourism) is leading the Yayasan Litbang Telekomunikasi & Informatika (YLTI) the
    foundation of telecommunication & informatics research. Under his leadership, YLTI has
    working on re-writting the Nusantara-21 concept to produce the concept for several key
    areas, such as, Teleducation, Telemedicine, Teleworking, Postal Services etc. It can be
    downloaded at http://n21.ac-id.net/
.
The YLTI Nusantara-21 conceptual framework is written by a small team, i.e., Dr. Onno W.
Purbo (team leader) onno@itb.ac.id , Dr. Gadang Ramantoko gadang@indosat.net.id , Dr.
Bobby Nazief nazief@cs.ui.ac.id , and Dr. Krishna Pribadi kpribadi@indo.net.id . Totally
different from other Indonesian NII activities, in the N21 conceptual framework a clear vision
towards the transformation of Knowledged based Indonesian Society is written. The basic
strategy is quite simple, i.e., encourage private sectors & investors to take the major role in
building the knowledge based Indonesian socity. Government role will be focused as catalist &
regulating the processes through various incentives. Feedback mechanisms as well as
information delivery system to support a self finance & grass root activities are currently being
built at http://n21.ac-id.net/ and n21@itb.ac.id as well as through the participation of N21
Voluntary Board n21-sc@itb.ac.id . Interfacing into the regulator is currently being performed
through n21-sc@itb.ac.id by Mr. J. Parapak.

A real example for a self-finance & sustainable Nusantara-21 concept is actually the AIII
Indonesia which connecting 25+ educational institutions over Internet. The AIII Indonesia
activities have been attracting many commercial vendors as well as multinational funding
agencies, such as JICA, World Bank etc. due to its large market potentials.

Thus, a simple scheme, to penetrate the Indonesian IT market can be easily performed by piggy-
backing through education activities over the AIII Indonesian educational network while
negotiating any adjustment in the regulatory framework to adopt the technology through the N21
Voluntary Board n21-sc@itb.ac.id. We are sure that early investment in the Indonesian
educational sector would benefit both the foreign investors as well as the Indonesian people
years to come after Indonesia manage to survive its economics crisis.

SITE AND CONTACT LIST

APJII (Indonesia ISP Association)
Gedung Telkom
Jl. Gatot Subroto No. 52
Lantai M
Jakarta
T: 526 8777
F: 526 8789
www.apjii.or.id

ASEAN Web
Main web site for the ASEAN regional grouping
www.asean.or.id

Asian and Pacific Coconut Community
3rd Floor, Lina Building KAV-B7
Jl. HR Rasuna Said, Kuningan
Jakarta 12920
T: 522 1712
F: 522 1714
Email: apcc@indo.net.id
www.apcc.org.id
Asia Internet Interconnection Initiatives (AI3) Indonesia: Indonesia Education Network
Inter University Center Building 4th Floor
Institute of Technology Bandung
Bandung 40132
T/F: +62 22 251-2982
E-mail ai3@itb.ac.id
http://ai3.itb.ac.id

Bapedal
Environmental resources from the environmental impact management agency
www.bapedal.go.id

Canada Indonesia Technology Network (CITN)
Citnjkt@ibm.net
http://orca.fastfwd.com/futureworks/

CBNnet (ISP)
Gedung Manggala Wanabakti IV
Suite 618B
Jl Gatot Subroto
Jakarta 10270
T: 574 2488
F: 574 2481
Email: sales@cbn.net.id
www.cbn.net.id

Centrin Internet (ISP)
Jl. Pecenongan 72
Kompleks Ruko Atap Merah
Block C3A
Jakarta
T: 352 2323
F: 3483 0510
Email: info@centrin.net.id
www.centrin.net.id

Coarse Grains, Pulses, Roots and Tubers (CGPRT) Centre
Jl. Merdeka 145
Bogor 16111
T: (251) 343 277
F: (251) 336 290
Email: cgprt@indo.net.id
www.cgprt.org.sg

Indonesia Interactive
Good collection of Indonesian links
www.i-2.co.id

Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI)
Institute for providing policy and R&D for scientific endeavours
www.lipi.go.id

Nusantara 21
Sekretariat
Gegerkalong Hilir 47,
Bandung 40152
T: 022 214551
http://www.nusantara21.co.id
http://n21.ac-id.net

Yayasan Litbang Telkomunikasi Informatika (YLTI)
The Foundation Which Financially Supports the Nusantara-21 Policy Framework & Research
Projects
F: +62 21 381-0900
E-mail ylti@telkom.co.id
http://n21.ac-id.net

P4Knet
Information on scheme to alleviate poverty in rural areas
www.p4k.org

PT Satelit Palapa Indonesia (Satelindo)
Jl Daan Mogot KM 11
Jakarta Barat 11710
T: 545 1745
F: 545 1746
www.satelindo.co.id

PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom)
Jl. Japati 1
Bandung 40133
T: (022) 452 1510
F: (022) 440 313
www.telkom.co.id

RadNet (ISP)
Plaza 89, Suite 601
Jl. HR Rasuna Said
Kav. X-7 No. 6
Jakarta 12950
T: 252 6363
F: 252 4777
Email: service@rad.net.id
www.rad.net.id

SDNP-Indonesia
Resources on sustainable development programs in Indonesia
www.sdn.or.id

Tempo
Independent source of Indonesian news
www.tempo.co.id

Tukang Internet
Indonesian search engine
Harvest.access.net.id

Urban and Regional Development Institute (URDI)
Resources and a searchable library related to urban and regional development
www.urdi.org