The term Susah Sinyal or poor internet connection is pretty common in Indonesia. Even in highly developed areas, these situations are not far from rare. But, the term will get worse if you consider the outer region of Indonesia. The easter Indonesia, including West Papua, has been facing the problem for years. So, what is the government’s effort?
Telecommunication Infrastructure Project
The government actions have been going on since 2017. Some of the plans and actions signify the purpose to make the locals more aware of the internet. The plan was stated by The minister of Communication and Information. It says that the internet optics cables would be installed in some eastern parts of Indonesia.
In Papua itself, particularly in the Cendrawasih province, the cable installation will reach some regions. The areas are the Arfak mountains, manokwari Selatan, Teluk Wondama, Teluk Bintuni, Tambrauw, Maybrat, and Sorong selatan. The connection method is to connect those areas to either Manokwari or Sorong.
Since the former cities with proper internet are one Sorong and Manokwari, the project hopefully can reach another part of the province. The installation expectation is the land and under the sea optional cable. It also means to increase the trans road on the areas, which means to make better access for west Papua.
How about the progress? As per the Jokowi government’s idea to build a network, the project is slowly but surely improving. Under the name of the Palapa Ring Project, the project faces many problems during its implementation. The natural condition did not support the idea of using cable networks, including the underwater and the land transmission.
Thus, one of the best solutions is broadcasting services using satellites. In many cases, some areas have some internet but not an optimal one. It comes with many issues, including slow connection and uneven reach. Thus, the potential development has gained many international eyes. KT Sat Co from South Korea has won the easternmost province internet solution.
The KT Sat will use the communication satellite KoreaSat 7 to facilitate the easternmost province of Indonesia with a fast internet connection. It is also a great offer to give a solution on the not-so-effective cable connection. That is why the KT SAT will offer broadcasting services and telecommunication with their satellite.
The Recent distribution challenges
1. Inequal Internet Connection
West Papua and Papua have a pretty harsh internet problem. One of them is inequality. Since the center of the internet is Sorong and Manokwari, the central cities have the better or even the best internet experience out of Papua. It is also very astonishing that a certain report in 2020, has stated that Sorong has the best quality of mobile video streaming in Indonesia.
According to the report, Kota Sorong has an average internet speed of 68.1 which is the best among other cities in Indonesia. The fast internet might sound like a good aspect for Papua. However, that is only in Sorong and Jayapura (65.0). The other smaller regions around Papua did not get the same share, because of the low connection and the ineffective distribution.
Since the user competition and the demand in Papua and the surrounding area is particularly low, the speed is rising. The population centering in the location also creates a big diverse share of the internet. If only the other west Papua and Papua areas get the same amount of Sorong and Jayapura internet, easternmost Indonesia will have a proper connection.
2. Natural situation
One of the realizations of the Jokowi plan in connecting Papua with the internet is the Manokwari-Jayapura Sea Cable Communication System or SKKL. The internet connection was one of the backup networks for the Sulawesi Maluku Papua Cable system or SMPCS. Does it mean it works perfectly? No, the Papua natural area has been the biggest challenge.
From the long record, there are at least four cases of broken fiber-optic cables that happen deep in Papuan waters. The incidents happen in different waters due to many reasons, including earthquakes. Such as the 2017 and the 2018 earthquake that shattered the cable under the Sarmi – Biak water.
3. the lack of cellular operators
One of the challenges that form the internet connection is the lack of cellular operators. Papua and West Papua are mainly dominated by Telkomsel, which limits local choices. It is not a surprise since the telecommunication operator giant has been there for years. And investment issues to such a project are also related to security problems in Papua.
Indonesian internet connection and average speed might not be the best. Located in the number 77 with 3.7 Mbps as the average, it was not the best compared to other Asian Countries. However, the government’s effort to reach the outer part of Indonesia with the internet is worth praising. The challenge is huge and vast. So, the small improvement should force the better ones in the future.
