INDONESIA

Information Technology Activities & Opportunities.

Onno W. Purbo (onno@itb.ac.id), Gadang Ramantoko (gadang@indosat.net.id), Bobby
Nazief (nazief@cs.ui.ac.id), Agus Prayadi (ylti@telkom.co.id)
Nusantara-21: Indonesia Information Infrastructure.
Abstract
This paper will focus on the Indonesian Information Infrastructure initiatives named
Nusantara-21. Its activities as well as opportinities to participate in the development of
Indonesian Information Infrastructure will be described. Brief Canadian presence in
Indonesia will also be reported. Current Indonesian economical background and
education level has forced us to take a more conservative steps, encourage any
participatory actions as well as foreign partnership into the development. A much open &
cooperative Indonesian government is currently being formed. We do hope no more
leakadge & unpredictable situations would encourage foreign partners to participate in
the country's National Information Infrastructure (NII) development. This report is partly
taken from IDRC's PanAsia Report written by Geoff Long & Onno W. Purbo.
References
We would like to encourage people to browse some of our major homepages related to
Indonesia NII initiatives, such as:
http://n21.ac-id.net/
http://www.nusantara21.co.id/
http://www.lp.itb.ac.id/~yc1dav/N21/
as well as interact with our Nusantara-21 Steering Committee Board at n21-sc@itb.ac.id
led & funded by people from the Foundation for Telecommunication & Informatics
Research (YLTI) - ylti@telkom.co.id.
Overview on Indonesia
Indonesia, with the world's fourth largest population (200 million), consists of some
13,667 islands, six major religions, and more than 300 ethnic groups. Extending
telecommunications to all 27 provinces and each of the main islands is a daunting task
but one which Indonesia has embraced, particularly as a means of creating national
cohesion. The need to provide communications for development and modernisation was
recognised more than 20 years ago, with the launch of Indonesia's domestic satellite,
Palapa, in 1976. Many developments have occurred in the intervening years, however,
the current economic crisis has added a level of uncertainty to many business and
government initiatives. Indonesia's national information infrastructure (NII) is being

developed under a program known as Nusantara 21 http://n21.ac-id.net/, which calls for

all major islands and cities to be linked either by submarine and terrestrial cable or by
satellite by the year 2001. Whether this occurs or not will depend largely on how quickly
the country's economy is restored. In particular, the devaluing of the rupiah means that
most capital purchases will be delayed. IT subjects are widely taught in schools and
universities and an association of more than 100 computer colleges has been found.
Unfortunately, skills in Internet and networking technologies are lagging. There are
numerous local computer vendors and some equipment is made or assembled in
Indonesia. Prices before the economic crisis were on par with countries such as
Singapore, but inflation and the devalued rupiah mean that equipment is now much more
expensive.

Indonesia NII effort

Most of Indonesian Internet & Information Technology activities are driven by private
and educational sector. it doesn't mean that there is no government initiatives in this area.
Although, current economic crisis seems to slow down the government efforts.
Back in 1995, researchers at Telkom R&D division (RisTI) (http://risti.telkom.co.id)
proposed a concept for National Information Infrastructure (NII) called Nusantara-21.
Their original concept is focused on Gigabit fiber optics infrastructure for the country.
Despite, less emphasis on the application of the gigabit infrastructure, their concept has
drawn the attention of many parties, including the Secretrary General of MPPT, World
Bank, ADB, IBM etc. On April 1996, the Indonesian MPPT organized large workshop on
Indonesia Nusantara-21. After the workshop several groups than lead the initiative into
several different paths, i.e.,

The originator of Nusantara-21 concept is still working to on it & putting their

concept on the Web at http://www.nusantara21.co.id/ Their main emphasis still
remains on Gigabit infrastructure not much in the application layer.

BAPPENAS finances by the World Bank is trying to put US$34.5 million (loan)
for Information Infrastructure Development Program (IIDP). It is mainly focused
on regulatory framework, network securty & training. One of the activity is
Teaching Assistance & Training Program (TATP) lead by Ministry of Industry &
Trade. We are not sure if the program will still continue under current Indonesian
economic crisis.

In 1997, Coordinating Ministry for Production & Industry Ir. Hartarto received
the mandate from President Soeharto to lead Telematika Indonesia. Today, Mr.
Ichyar Musa is trying to initiate the Telematika Activities. Their concept is mainly
focused on building government network infrastructure and more project oriented.

Mr. J. Parapak sekjen@dppt.wasantara.net.id (now the secretary general for

ministry of tourism) is leading the Yayasan Litbang Telekomunikasi &
Informatika (YLTI) (ylti@telkom.co.id) the foundation of telecommunication &
informatics research. Under his leadership, YLTI has working on re-writting the
Nusantara-21 concept to produce the concept for several key areas, such as,
Teleducation, Telemedicine, Teleworking, Postal Services etc. It can be
downloaded at http://n21.ac-id.net/

.
The YLTI Nusantara-21 conceptual framework is written by a small team, i.e., Dr. Onno
W. Purbo (team leader) onno@itb.ac.id , Dr. Gadang Ramantoko gadang@indosat.net.id ,
Dr. Bobby Nazief nazief@cs.ui.ac.id , and Dr. Krishna Pribadi kpribadi@indo.net.id .
Totally different from other Indonesian NII activities, in the N21 conceptual framework
a clear vision towards the transformation of Knowledged based Indonesian Society is
written. The basic strategy is quite simple, i.e., encourage private sectors & investors to
take the major role in building the knowledge based Indonesian socity. Government role
will be focused as catalist & regulating the processes through various incentives.
Lead by YLTI (ylti@telkom.co.id), we implement feedback mechanisms as well as
information delivery system to support a self finance & grass root activities are currently
being built at http://n21.ac-id.net/ and n21@itb.ac.id as well as through the participation
of N21 Voluntary Board n21-sc@itb.ac.id . Interfacing into the regulator is currently
being performed through n21-sc@itb.ac.id by Mr. J. Parapak.
A real example for a self-finance & sustainable Nusantara-21 concept is actually the AIII
Indonesia (http://ai3.itb.ac.id) which connecting 25+ educational institutions (approx.
10.000 students) over Internet. The AIII Indonesia (http://ai3.itb.ac.id) activities have
been attracting many commercial vendors as well as multinational funding agencies, such
as JICA, World Bank etc. due to its large IT market potentials.
Thus, an alternative simple scheme, to penetrate the Indonesian IT market can be easily
performed by piggy-backing through education activities over the AIII Indonesian
educational network while negotiating any adjustment in the regulatory framework to
adopt the technology through the N21 Voluntary Board n21-sc@itb.ac.id. We are sure
that early investment in the Indonesian educational sector would benefit both the foreign
investors as well as the Indonesian people years to come after Indonesia manage to
survive its economics crisis. Similar scheme could also be performed for other
commercial / business sectors which will benefit both parties.
Brief Canadian Presence in Indonesia
CIDA has been phenomenal in acting as Canadian ambassador for the development in
Indonesia. Several major projects has been undertaken; Those related to Indonesian IT
sector will be briefly described.

The National Research Council Canada (NRC www.nrc.ca) is currently supporting the
establishment
of
Canada
Indonesia
Technology
Network
(CITN)
at
http://orca.fastfwd.com/futureworks/ It will be linked to the Canadian Technology
Network (CTN) at http://ctn.nrc.ca/ . It is a collaboration effort between NRC & BPPT
(Ministry of Science & Technology) supported by CIDA. The aim is to help SMEs via
Information Technology by linking the business related resources in educational sectors,
NGOs and Goverment R&D for the SMEs. Interconnection between CTN & CITN might
be one of the best gateway for IT / other technologies to enter Indonesian market.
CIDA funded Eastern Indonesian Universities Development Project (EIUDP) initiated by
colleagues at Simon Frazer University (SFU) has been working for sometimes in
helpoing the remote universities in eastern Indonesian. One of their current initiative is to
establish a library network in Indonesia with linkages to the Canadian libraries. Thanks to
low cost Internet technology, a preliminary test bed is being developed at
http://www.lib.itb.ac.id/search.html.
Canada Education Center (CEC) and Canada Asean Center (CAC) have also participate
in the Indonesian development. For example, a network of Canadian Alumny in
Indonesia is being developed by CAC.
These activities would be a good place for Canadian to enter the Indonesian IT market.
Indonesian Regulatory Environment
Internet regulation is the responsibility of the Directorate General of Posts and
Telecommunications, although as yet a firm policy has not been finalised. The directorate
is looking at overseas experiences to find a model for regulating the Internet and a
number of organisations within the country are currently drafting policies. One such
organisation is YLTI, or the Foundation for Telecommunication and Informatic Research
(ylti@telkom.co.id). The government has opened up the ISP sector in recent years, with
47 companies now licensed to offer Internet access. There are no laws prohibiting voice
over Internet services and some ISPs are currently looking at this option. Electronic
commerce comes under the control of the Ministry of Trade.
The country top-level domain was administered by the University of Indonesia at
www.idnic.net.id. However, at the moment, IANA (www.iana.org) is taking back full
responsibility of the country top-level domain. The primary DNS server for Indonesia is
currently being moved from Australia to Indosat's network operations centre in Jakarta.
Internet Connectivity
Moves to setup Internet infrastructure have come from the commercial, education, and
government sectors, although sometimes the initiatives are overlapping. Perhaps the most
change has been seen in the commercial sector as a response to the economic crisis.
While ISPs had for many years resisted attempts to connect their operations through a
common Internet exchange, the value of the rupiah has meant that it is no longer feasible

for each ISP to have a separate leased line. As a result, most of the ISPs now share three
common lines that connect TelkomNet Internet Exchange (IX), IndosatNet IX as well as
the newly formed Indonesian Internet Exchange (IIX) to the Internet backbone in the
US. A total current aggregate Indonesian speed to Internet is 5-7 Mbps, significantly
reduced from ~20 Mbps in early 1997. In terms of coverage and subscribers, the largest
ISPs are RADnet (www.rad.net.id), Indo.net (www.indo.net.id), and CBNnet
(www.cbn.net.id) , which were among the first to obtain licences from the DGPT. These
three also still run their own leased lines in addition to being connected to the
IIX.Telkomnet (run by Telkom's multimedia division www.telkom.net.id) and Centrin
Internet also have significant operations. TelkomNet IX is currently serving 13 ISP.
The education sector in Indonesia is very active and has suffered less from the economic
fallout. It should also be noted that the education and commercial sectors are sometimes
at odds regarding Internet issues. Two of the most prominent universities are the Bandung
Institute of Technology (ITB www.itb.ac.id) and the University of Indonesia (UI
www.ui.ac.id) in Jakarta, both of which have a pool of Internet-skilled staff.
Since 1996, the Institute of Technology in Bandung (ITB www.itb.ac.id) also operates an
Internet exchange for the education sector, which is connected via a 1.5Mb link to the
Asia Pacific AIII backbone (www.ai3.net) connected to WIDE Project (www.wide.ad.jp)
in Japan. ITB also has a 2Mb link directly to TelkomNet (www.telkom.net.id) Internet
Exchange (IX) where 13 of Indonesian commercial ISP are located. More than half of the
country's (around 27) universities are connected to the exchange, while the others go
through a commercial ISP for connectivity.
The AIII Indonesia (http://ai3.itb.ac.id) is the name of the Indonesian education network
which are using ITB as their main gateway to Internet. Started from 1200bps AX.25
network in 1993, it is currently the largest educational network in Indonesia & serving
25+ educational institutions connected via various media such as WaveLAN 2Mbps,
Telkom (www.telkom.co.id) Fiber Optics 128-512kbps, Elektrindo Nusantara
(www.en.co.id) VSAT 19.2-128Kbps. Expansion of AIII Indonesia network is currently
underway in several areas, such as,
Universities in Sumatra Island in collaboration with UNILA (www.unila.ac.id) ,
Telkom DIVNet, Telkm DIVRe 1 and JICA funded HEDS Project.
Bali Island in collaboration with YWCN (www.ywcn.or.id)
Several univesities (in Sumatra, Jawa & Lombok) under DUE Project funded by
World Bank.
We do expect the help from CIDA funded EIUDP for integrating the eastern
Indonesian universities into Internet.
Because of poor quality local phone lines and limited budget, the universities have
created their own wireless network that by-passes the local lines (Metropolitan Area
Network). It uses waveLAN technology to connect universities at speeds up to 2Mbps.
R&D in WaveLAN lead by students at Computer Network Research Group ITB
cnrg@itb.ac.id / http://www.lp.itb.ac.id/~cnrg/ . To extend the scope of the network, an
innovative network will be built utilising Indonsian-made radio modems that will allow

other universities to connect at 64-256kbps. The circuit boards for the modems are being
designed and manufactured at the Institute of Technology and can be made for around
$100 each. The network will use Citizen Band (CB) and ham radio frequencies in the
VHF 140MHz band at 64Kbps. Research on 64-256Kbps radio network is led by Adnan
Basalamah (adnan@itb.ac.id) .
In the government sector, the most significant network is Iptek-Net (www.iptek.net.id),
the original gateway to the Internet in Indonesia which was originally conceived as a
science and technology networking initiative. It serves many government departments,
although it is no longer the country's sole Internet gateway. Iptek-Net has been developed
by the Indonesia National Research Council (www.drn.go.id) at the Ministry of Science
and Technology and provides services to government departments, research
organisations, and educational institutions.
Content Initiatives
There are a number of sites which attempt to aggregate the main Indonesian web content.
On a general level, one of the most comprehensive is Indocenter, which was developed
by Radnet. It lists sites by category and also has some good media resources which
includes some mainstream magazines and newspapers. Similar sites that list Indonesian
links by category are Indonesia Interactive (www.i-2.co.id), CBNnet (www.cbn.net.id),
and Idola (www.idola.net.id). A good source of news is the interactive version of Tempo,
a magazine that had previously been banned in print form in Indonesia but allowed to
continue on the web. It has news in both English and Indonesian, although not all
Indonesian stories are translated into English.
The Environmental Impact Management Agency (Bapedal www.bapedal.go.id) is a
government agency with the task of managing environmental impacts through the control
of pollution and environmental damage, as well as issues relating to environmental
rehabilitation. Its web site, which is in both Indonesian and English, has many resources
related to environmental issues, with links to news, research, services, and other relevant
Internet resources.
In the educational sector, we have several major activities going on most of them are
initiated by AI3 Indonesia led by ITB. Some examples are:
Effort to link CDS/ISIS library database is currently done using WAIS-CDS/ISIS
Web on http://www.lib.itb.ac.id/search.html and linking 7+ CDS/ISIS library
database including one in Italy. Work is currently underways to link the databases
of many Indonesian major libraries.
Knowledge management to support distance education activities are being
developed by Computer Network Research Group (CNRG) ITB. It is led by
Ismail@itb.ac.id & partly supported by IBM (www.ibm.com) .
Link exchange of Indonesia Peer Academic Network & Education Link
(Indonesia-panel@itb.ac.id
)
located
at
http://www2.unpar.ac.id/sql/n21/index.html It aims to enable resource sharing
among educational institutions over Internet.

ITB's majordomo@itb.ac.id is currently hosting 150+ Indonesian Internet

mailing lists serving 15.000+ subscribers It is one of the largest Indonesian
mailing list service in Internet. Some of the mailing lists are archived and serving
national policy framework, such as, n21@itb.ac.id & n21-sc@itb.ac.id .
The AIII Indonesia is also supporting the Nusantara-21 on various level including
the web http://n21.ac-id.net/ and mailing list at n21@itb.ac.id & n21sc@itb.ac.id