Indonesia Telecom Regulator, Badan Regulasi Telekomunikasi Indonesia (BRTI) rewarded telecom operators and stakeholders in a ceremony held on Nov 10 at Hotel Borobudur. Bakrie Telecom (Btel) received the Best Achievement Award for fixed line category, and Indosat was the best in cellular category. The selections were said to be based on consumer satisfaction and brand popularity (55% marks) and network performance (45%) and conducted by an independent research institution Frontier. The winners: Best Achievement Award (Fixed Line): Bakrie Telecom, Runner up: PT Telkom Best Achievement Award (Cellular): PT Indosat, Runner up: Excelcomindo Pratama Award of Appreciation (Print Media): “Bisnis Indonesia” Award of Appreciation (Broadcast Media): Metro TV Award of Appreciation (Online Media): detikcom (detikINET) Lifetime Achievement: Arnold P. Djiwatampu (Reported by Juni Soehardjo in Jakarta)
Licenses have been granted to consortium members for building the Palapa Ring–backbone that will connect the Eastern part of Indonesia that currently relies on satellites with the rest of the country. It is not clear how the licenses were granted and what are the fees and obligations of the license holders. Furthermore, technical and financial feasibility studies are yet to be completed. No access regimes have been developed that will govern how non-consortium members will be able to access the Palapa Ring and on what terms. There couldn’t be a worse possible way of launching such a complex, capital-intensive project that is supposed to transform the ICT infrastructure of Indonesia.