INDO BIZZ

The Indonesian government will hold a national and international fiber optic and wireless network construction bid in an effort to speed up development of an Internet Protocol-based telecommunication network, a senior official said.
"We will prepare the tender procedure in the next two weeks," Antara news agency quoted Communication and Information Minister Sofyan Djalil as saying here Wednesday after opening an IndoComtech computer exhibition at the Jakarta Convention Center.
The fiber optic development project would hopefully boost domestic industry of communication and technology (ICT) and reduce the high tariff of Internet, he said.
With fiber optic-based telecommunication network connections with foreign states, the Internet tariff in Indonesia could be reduced significantly, he said.
"The government is ready to reduce the Internet tariff for the sake of ICT development," he said.
The minister, however, did not mention the capacity of fiber optics that would be needed to build the network and the investment value of the project.
The government, he said, would not reap benefit from the bid but only facilitate the network's development.
Sofyan said that some telecommunication operators had already built fiber optic networks that encircled Indonesia.
The government's plan to establish fiber optic-based telecommunication network would create good competition with the other telecommunication operators, he said.
"The bid will be conducted openly. It's not impossible that foreign investors will also take part in the bid," he said.