Most Indonesians access the Internet primarily using fixed wireline infrastructure, mostly dialup. Because of lack of competition in the fixed line sector due to various reasons fixed line growth has been stagnant which has also affected Internet growth in the country. Not only are no new lines being added to bring more homes online, the inadequate backbone infrastructure in large swathe of the country makes deployment of broadband services unviable even if incumbent’s local loop bottleneck could be bypassed.
However, yesterday’s Wall Street Journal (March 15, 2007) seems to suggest that high speed 3G wireless technology like HSDPA can bring broadband on a large scale to Indonesians. It (misleadingly) implies that since HSDPA is merely a software upgrade to 3G networks it will not require any new…
Tags: 3G, 3G mobile-phone technology, 3G services, 3G technology, ADSL, Asia, backbone infrastructure, Broadband, broadband services, cable networks, cellphone technology, cellular networks, connectivity solution, connectivity solutions, Dev Yusmananda, Djarot Handoko, Ericsson, fiber optic, fixed wireline infrastructure, flood, high speed 3G wireless technology, HSDPA technology, inadequate backbone infrastructure, Indonesia, Indosat, Internet access, Internet connections, Internet download speeds, Jakarta, least-developed communications systems, local telecommunications, Malaysia, mobile-phone technology, Nokia, potential Internet users, PT Excelcomindo Pratama, PT Indonesia Satellite Corp., PT Telekomunikasi Selular, SouthEast Asia, Surabaya, telecom infrastructure, the Philippines, Wall Street Journal.
In the 1980s and 1990s, a debate raged in the US on the question of industrial policy; the proponents arguing that the government should pick sectors and “winners” and the opponents arguing that government bureaucrats were not in a position to do so and that the market should be allowed to take its course.
One of the most effective methods of policy argumentation in the US is “we are falling behind [fill in the blank].” Those days, the country that was forging ahead of the US was Japan, in most cases (e.g., Fifth Generation Computing, High Definition Television) . The argument was that the strong government bureaucracy in Japan (in particular, MITI–the Ministry of International Trade and Industry) was picking winners, while the potential winners in…
Tags: Abe Fellowship, Broadband, energy fighting, High Definition Television, Internet innovation, Internet leadership, Japan, Ministry of International Trade and Industry, mobile-phone technology, Thomas Bleha, United States.
Recent Comments