At least 32 thousand villages in Indonesia are still considered "blank spot" because they do not have telecommunications towers. Infrastructure development, especially in eastern Indonesia, is still lacking.
"There are 32 thousand blank spot villages in Indonesia," said the Special Staff to the Minister of Communication and Information, Sukemi, in the socialization of Law No. 14 of 2008 on the Openness of Public Information. The event, a cooperation between LPPM and the Ministry was held at LPPM, UGM, Wednesday (21/10).
Sukemi said that the absence of information was because telecommunications towers have not reached the villages. Most of the people in the blankspot villages, however, were ready to receive the information and communication technology.
He said that the villages near East Timor and Kupang borders already have communication by cellular phones since August. At first, mobile operators were pessimistic, but, within a week, bandwidth usage had exceeded the capacity of BTS tower.
Furthermore, Sukemi said that the government plans to have 10 Villages with Internet services, or Smart Village Program. The Director of Social Communications of the Ministry, James Pardede, suggested that one of the efforts to reduce the number of blankspot villages is to conduct the Universal Service Obligation (USO), aiming to reduce telecommunications gap, including in remote areas.
Besides to build telecommunication towers, his side will continue to encourage the institutions and broadcast media development in remote areas. "We always encourage radio and community media in the border regions," added Pardede.
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