Govt targets Internet coverage on all islands by 2012

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 11/11/2011

The Communications and Information Technology Ministry is targeting to connect all islands in Indonesia to the Internet by 2012, according to an official.

A ministry’s expert staffer, Suprawoto, said on Friday that the ministry also planned that all islands would have broadband networks by 2016.

He said that the plans were a “follow up” to the Indonesia Informatif (Informative Indonesia) program, which has been a vision of the ministry.

“Indonesia Informatif is our effort to bring Indonesian people closer to information,” he said in a forum in Gorontalo, North Sulawesi, Antara news agency reported.

He added that the ministry hoped Indonesians would use the Internet for education and community empowerment purposes.

“People are uneducated or poor not because of their financial situation but because of a lack of information,” he said.

Suprawoto said the ministry had developed the Desa Berdering (Villages Rings) program this year, building infrastructure in 5,874 districts that gave villages access to telephones, the radio and the Internet.

“We are building the optical fiber networks on the remaining islands. It has now reached Papua,” he added.