Govt Targeting Indonesia Broadband By 2012

Denpasar (Antara Bali) - The Indonesian government expects all villages in the country to have access to information by the end of 2011 as an initial step towards "Indonesia Connected" by 2012.

"After all provinces have been covered by the program it will then be followed by Indonesia Broadband in 2016 and Indonesia Digital by 2018," senior advisor of the minister of information and telecommunication, Kalamullah Ramli, said here on Wednesday.

At the "Bali Annual Telkom International Conference (BATIC)" he said the target of connecting all villages in the country would be achieved by providing information access.

"Besides providing information access in villages the government also plans to provide internet access in all sub-districts," he said.

The conference was attended by more than 150 executives from around 62 companies from various countries, chief executive officer of PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia Internasional (Telin), Ririek Adriansyah, said.

The participating companies include noted companies in the telecommunication industry such as Google, Blackberry, Microsoft, Tata, Level 3 USA, China Telecom, Deutsche Telecom, SingTel, Hutchinson and PCCW.

"We are very proud of the enthusiasm of business partners. Their active support and participation has been shown by the increasing number of participants to BATIC 2011, an annual event held for the second time this year," he said.(**)