Telkom to develop internet gateway to boost eastern Indonesia economy

Jakarta (ANTARA) - PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia Internasional (Telin), a subsidiary of state-run telecommunications company PT Telkom Indonesia, will develop its second international Internet gateway in Manado city, North Sulawesi, to stoke economic growth in eastern Indonesian regions.

Currently, most of the digital traffic in Indonesia is concentrated in the western region through the international gateway in Batam city, Riau Islands province, director for wholesale and international services at PT Telkom Indonesia, Bogi Witjaksono, said here on Monday.

From Batam city, the traffic heads to Singapore, and then to the international network, he informed.

Hence, the only way for people in the eastern regions to enjoy faster, or at least the same, digital connectivity at almost the same price as their western counterparts is to establish a new digital gateway so that the traffic is not concentrated at one gateway, he explained.

We hope that if a gateway is available in the eastern part of Indonesia, the (traffic of the) digital industry players will also head to the gateway, hence it can improve the digital economy sector there, he said.

Meanwhile, CEO of PT Telin, Budi Satria Dharma Purba, informed that 16 out of a total of 17 telecommunication submarine cables from Indonesia lead to Singapore and Malaysia as most of the Indonesian Internet traffic goes to Singapore.

Therefore, PT Telin has initiated the development of the Indonesia Global Gateway South East Asia-United States (IGG SEA-US) submarine Internet cable route connecting Singapore, Indonesia (in Manado City), Hawaii, and the United States as an alternative route to the regular route that passes Hong Kong and Shanghai.

"The IGG SEA-US route has been operated since 2017. Since then, everyone (digital industry actors) has been utilizing this route for backups in case something happens on the regular route," Purba said.

The IGG SEA-US route is also an alternative for reducing the dependency on the Singapore-centric Internet route, he added.

"Currently, 97 percent of Indonesian Internet traffic goes to Singapore. Only 3 percent of it goes to the US through the IGG SEA-US route," he noted.

Apart from security reasons and reducing dependency on other countries, the second international digital gateway in Manado city is expected to support a more uniform Internet speed in the eastern region of Indonesia, he added.