Kominfo Engage Chinese Tech Giant to Build Thousands of 4G Towers in Papua

The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (Kominfo) has engaged a Chinese telecommunications company, ZTE, to build 3,409 Base Transceiver Station (BTS) towers in Papua. Construction is targeted for completion next year.

The construction of 3,409 BTS in Papua is included in one of the 4G BTS construction packages in disadvantaged, frontier and outermost (3T) areas from the Information and Telecommunications Accessibility Agency (BAKTI) of the Ministry of Communication and Information. For the Papua region, BAKTI entrusted the construction to a consortium of PT Inti Bangun Sejahtera Tbk and ZTE from China.
 
The two companies are building internet infrastructure in Bumi Cendrawasih for Package 4 and Package 5. The total contract value is IDR 18.8 trillion.
 
BAKTI President Director Kominfo Anang Latif said the construction of 3,409 BTS towers in Papua was completed in 2022. In total, 65% of the total BTS construction plan in the 3T area from BAKTI.
 
"This year, the ZTE and IBS consortium completed 1,811 BTS in Papua. We are targeting 3,409 BTS to be completed by 2022," Anang said in a virtual press conference, Tuesday (7/12).

The BTS will provide internet access to people in Papua at a speed of 20 mega bytes per second (Mbps). "It's useful for communicating like sending pictures on WhatsApp," he said.

Along with the development of other internet infrastructure such as satellite, internet capacity in Papua will be increased.
 
However, Kominfo faces a number of obstacles in developing the internet network in Papua. One of them is the higher development costs due to limited infrastructure.

"Geographical conditions are also challenging. Materials need to be sent using air transportation because there is no basic infrastructure for roads and electricity," he said.
 
Internet network development in Papua is also not commercially profitable. "This is because the population is spread out," he said.
 
Nationally, the government targets the provision of 4G internet access in 9,113 3T area points during 2020 - 2022.

A total of 1,200 were completed last year. A total of 4,200 BTS towers were built this year. Then the rest will be completed in 2022.
 
In addition, there are 3,435 villages and sub-districts outside of non-3T that have not yet been accessed by 4G. This will be the responsibility of cellular operators such as Telkomsel, XL, and Indosat to provide it.
 
ZTE Indonesia President Director Richard Liang said the collaboration with IBS and BAKTI Kominfo is in line with the company's mission to accelerate the development of the digital economy. "Increasing the acceleration of the digital economy in the outermost regions," he said.

SOURCE: https://katadata.co.id/desysetyowati/digital/61af1110b1b2b/kominfo-gaet-raksasa-technology-china-bangun-ribuan-menara-4g-di-papua