Decree on fiber optics to be issued next year

Tifa Asrianti, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 12/19/2008 11:02 AM  

Traffic congestion caused by continuous excavations will be diminished as the city administration plans to create a master blueprint of the underground optic network. 

The blueprint will be part of a gubernatorial decree regulating fiber optic development. 

Governor Fauzi Bowo on Thursday said the decree would be ready by the first quarter of next year. 

"We want to provide better services ... There will be no more overlapping road excavation projects," he said at City Hall. 

The city administration has stopped issuing permits for all road excavation projects while the regulation is being drafted. 

"We do not have a verification system for fiber optic development. For the time being, we only have permits for road excavations and another permit for short-time excavation. After the decree issuance, we will use the short-time permits for fiber optic development," Fauzi said. 

He said the master plan would contain calculations on future demand for traffic lights, electronic traffic control, tax transmission data and surveillance cameras that would use fiber optics. 

"We will let private companies operate the fiber optic network. There will be a city-owned company involved in the fiber optic network operation, but we will treat it like a private company," he said. 

Jakarta currently has a 2,221-kilometer-long fiber optic network. 

Fauzi said development was previously disorganized because operators usually set up networks at the request of consumers, usually in upscale business areas. 

"We even found operators applying for cable permits for what later turned out to be fiber optic projects. 

"We realized that fiber optics will be needed not only by businesses, but by households as well." 

Yusuf Effendi Pohan, head of public street lights and utilities, said the administration needed to anticipate fiber optic development after seeing 50 percent growth last year. 

Ardi Sudarto, sales marketing manager for corporate solutions at fiber optic-based Internet service provider CBN, said his company saw the regulation as an opportunity to expand fiber optic networks to new areas. 

"Perhaps the regulation is aimed at organizing the network and excavation activities. We support the decree as long as it allows us to do business and serve customers," he said. 

Yusuf said the fiber optic development would help reduce the number of base transceiver stations (BTS) in the city as it could transfer data quicker than regular cable networks. 

Currently, there are 3,400 BTS towers in Jakarta. The city administration plans to limit them to 800 towers. 

"With fiber optics, cellular phones will have better signals," he said. 

Yusuf said the administration would make fiber optics in line with ducting projects, which aim to integrate utility networks such as electrical wiring, water pipes and sewer pipes. 

The 200-meter ducting under Menteng Park, Central Jakarta, is one of the ducting projects completed by the city administration.