Bridging The Digital Divide in Indonesia Onno W. Purbo onno@indo.net.id @onnowpurbo STKIP Surya, Indonesia

Digital Divide Digital divide refers to the gap between individuals, households, businesses and geographic areas at different socio-economic levels or other demographic categories with regard to their opportunities to access to, use of, or impact of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on a wide variety of activities (OECD, 2001).

Indonesian Telecommunication Legal Framework Only licensed operators may deploy telecommunication infrastructure. Only licensed Internet Service Providers may provide access to the Internet. Others are illegal.

Possible Source of Funding Universal Service Obligation (USO), 1.25% of operator's gross revenue. Village Funds (varies Rp. 240 million – 1.1 billion per village). Self-finance at community / village level. Finance Minister : “Telecommunication sector must be able to run and accelerated without having to rely on the national budget” (KEMKOMINFO, 2015)

Internet Penetration in Indonesia ITU (2014) ISOC (2015) InternetLiveStats Country's Authority Singapore 82.00% 73% 82.5% 79% Malaysia 67.50% 67% 68.6% 100% VietNam 48.31% 44% 52% Phillipines 39.69% 37% 43.5% Thailand 34.89% 29% 42.7% Indonesia 17.14% 16% 20.4% 34.9%

Why increasing Internet Penetration? Increase in 10% of high speed broadband penetration will contribute to per-capita GDP growth of 1.38% (World Bank, 2009). Increase in 10% of Internet penetration will contribute to per-capita GDP growth of 1.12% (World Bank, 2009).

The Facts One of twenty countries that home of 3/4 of 4.3 billion Internet non-users world wide. Internet Users 88.1 million (2014) Majority Age 18-25 yo. (49%) - digital natives. Education Level 64.7% high school 85% use smartphones to access the Internet

Telecom Infrastructure Cellular subscription 326.3 million. 85% population own mobile phones. 43% carry smart phones. 300+ Internet Service Providers Peak local Internet traffic 240Gbps (June 2016) Peak International Internet traffic 800 Gbps (June 2016).

The Challenges to Increase Internet Penetration 46.7% Indonesian in rural & villages. 17,640 privately own cyber cafes in Indonesia. North Kalimantan, West Sulawesi, Maluku, Noth Maluku and Papua has <80 Cyber Cafe. Out of 82,190 villages, 18,603 villages receive only weak cellular signals and 7,717 village has no cellular signal. Out of 82,190 villages, 16,043 villages in the mountain peak or slope and 3,630 in valley surrounded by mountains. Monthly income in rural / villages Rp. 772,800 Monthly income in urban Rp. 1,1 million Expenditure for good and services Rp. 72,524, Internet spending has to compete with health, toiletries, beauty equipment, textbooks, etc. A maximum of Rp. 10,000 for Internet spending.

Global Debate on Digital Divide Internet skills is important to be able to get maximum benefit from the Internet. Internet skills: operational skill, Information navigation, social, creative, and mobile skill. The barriers to greater Internet use fall into four categories: infrastructure; affordability; skills, awareness and cultural acceptance; and local adoption and use, which is often due to a lack of local content (World Economic Forum, 2016; ITU, 2015; MCMC, 2015; IDA, 2015) Network neutrality is the principle that all Internet traffic should be treated equally. Obama's rule: no blocking, no throttling, increased transparency and no paid prioritization.

Attemps to bridge the Digital Divide Government use of Universal Service Obligation (US) Funds, 1.25% of operator's gross revenue. Citizens heavy on people empowerment & self- finance the network. In planning stage: Ministry of Village using the Village Fund.

Government Attempts Since 2010, Rp. 2 trillion funds for rural telecommunication. In 2012, 4700 Smart Village by Telkomsel, consists of a WiFi hotspot, two (2) computers and one printer. Maintenance and operation partly done by the villagers. In 2013, village cyber cafes (PLIK) and mobile cyber cafes (MPLIK) is the largest project. In 2016, village cyber cafes and mobile cyber cafes reported failed. These programs were deployed with very limited field surveys on the needs of citizens and local capacity, and not much training for human resources that will handle the system.

Community Attempts Build Local Expertise Education / Empowerment Innovation of Technology Lower the Costs Revenue Benefit local economy. Sustainable Rural Internet.

ICT Teacher Empowerment Since end 2015 Driven by ICT teachers volunteer called KOGTIK. Workshops roadshow in 10 cities @ 100 teachers (various subjects). Fee Rp. 75-100.000 / teacher. Use cyberlearning.web.id & belajaronline.web.id as the main servers. It has more then 14.500 students.

Students Empowerment Since 2012, Raihan Technology Foundation. Self-finance Rp. 25-35.000 / participating student. 40 workshops & demos, 500-600 participants. Total cost Rp. 10 million / event. Topics – healthty Internet, hacking, wireless Internet, openbts, telephony on Internet etc.

Professional Wireless Engineers Workshops Mikrotik and Ubiquity brands Ubiquity: 4 technical events @ 100 participants; 4 workshops @ 20 participants; 1 ToT @ 20 participants – about 500 engineers / year. Mikrotik: 40 workshops @ 24 participants – about 1000 engineers / year. 2015 Mikrotik User Meeting in Yogyakarta – 2500 participant, the largest in the world.

Some of the Innovations Wokbolic - < US$30 – 3-4 km antenna. 56Mbps Long Distance Wireless Network. Cost US$1100 per link (max 130+ km) Neighborhood Network – extension of cyber cafe for the whole neighborhood. OpenBTS – community cellular network.

Neighborhood Network No formal estimate, as they operate silently. In Mikrotik Indonesia users, > 87,000 users, 3,374 users run neighborhood network. https://www.facebook.com/groups/rtrwnetindonesia/ - large RT/RW-net discussion group on Facebook, > 22,100 members. Safe estimate ~3000 villages is now connected. > 100,000 wireless equipments per year, 5% to village – safe estimate ~200 additional villages per year are connected.

North Sulawesi 56Mbps Wireless Backbone (200-300 km ranges)

OpenBTS Open Source BTS Cellullar Commercial BTS ~ Rp. 1.5-2 billion / BTS OpenBTS ~ Rp. 150-300 million / BTS. Since 2011, >80 workshops @ 100 participants – total >14.300 participants. Feature in Detik.com, KOMPAS, MetroTV, NetTV. Many research groups - Surya University 10 unit, Telkom University >5 units, PENS Surabaya >12 units, ITB >3 units, Politechnics Aceh 2 units, UI 2 units, ICTWATCH 3 units, Airputih Foundation 1 unit.

OpenBTS in Wamena, Papua 3 Years, the longest running OpenBTS in the world. Research project of Kurtis Heimerl et.al. TIER UC Berkeley, US. In the first 16 months, 349 subscribers provides US$980 per month for the operator. It was found that 16% of the phones in the area were smartphones (compared to between 14-24% in Indonesia)

Pro Rural Policy Key approaches: Narrowing access divide. Increasing Internet skills. Increasing Internet skills: Inclusion of ICT in school curriculum, re- employing ICT teachers, connect schools to Internet. Collaborate with the communities to run workshops, seminars etc.

Pro Rural Policy Options in narrowing the access divide: fully government-operator driven, with elaborate surveys on the needs of citizens and local capacity, followed by detailed planning and rigorous human resources empowerment that will handle the system. Public-private (citizen) partnership. Source of funding: Universal Service Obligation (USO) fund. Village Fund. Self-finance. Class License of Neighborhood Networks or provide 80.000+ ISP license for each village. Future research on USO funds for communities, allocation of telephone area codes, network interconnection charges and cellular channel for communities.

Onno W. Purbo onno@indo.net.id @onnowpurbo STKIP Surya, Indonesia Thank You Onno W. Purbo onno@indo.net.id @onnowpurbo STKIP Surya, Indonesia