Indonesia Offers Tender for Palapa Ring in the fourth quarter of 2015

Ilustrasi (dok)

Sinabang (IndoTelko) - Indonesian Minister of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) Rudiantara ensure the Palapa Ring fiber-optic Tender to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2015 to implement the broadband-based connections throughout the district in 2018.

"I will ensure the tender to be held as soon as possible. It is expected that we could have a winner before the end of the year, so the groundbreaking could be held in early 2016. This project has been delayed for decades, it can not be postponed again," said Rudiantara after launching XL's 3G base stations on the island of Simeulue, lately.

He said one of the routes to be served Palapa Ring is Sinabang which fiber optic to replace VSAT as a backbone and for broadband transmission. "Sinabang is included in the construction, the fiber optic to attract more players in fast-moving society and economy," he said.

He added that currently the government is finalizing the Palapa Ring operational business model to attract potential investors. "We remain to be less subsidies, but it can attract investors. The winner is those who ask for the less subsidies," he said.

Attracting
On the same occasion, XL's President Director Dian Siswarini recognizes the development of infrastructure in the border regions is more expensive than urban areas.

"The investment is two and a half times than urban areas. If the optics could replace VSAT it would be very helpful, imagine the lease cost of VSAT is around US $ 2 thousand only for a single E1 (E-carrier). One E1, just enough for a single voice, the public now need the data," she said.

The government is expected to adopt similar pattern of development in the border base stations for Palapa Ring which in terms of assets such as land or the tower is built by the city / county governments, operators provide a link, whereas the difference in access provision is subsidized by the central government. "It would be interesting if we could adopt such pattern," She added.

Previously, eight companies have passed the prequalification stage of the fiber optic backbone network development projects fiber optic worth US $ 230.64 million.

Three of the eight companies that passed the prequalification stage are telecommunications operators namely Telkom, XL Axiata and Indosat.

Besides there are several joint consortium of several companies. The eight companies who qualified were divided into three groups according to the division of the three packages II of Palapa Ring projects namely West, Central and East packages.

The Western package will includes five districts / cities in West Indonesia with 1,122 kilometer (KM) of fiber optic on the sea and the estimated cost is US $ 40.39 million will be participated by six companies namely PT iForte Infotek Solutions, PT Indosat Tbk, the Consortium Mora Telematics Indonesia-Ketrosden Triasmitra, Consortium of Super System Ultima-Huawei, Telkom and XL.

The Central package is covering 17 districts / cities in Central Indonesia with 1,676 KM of fiber optic on the sea and land with cost estimation of US $ 47.08 million which will be participated by six companies namely PT iForte Infotek Solutions, Indosat, Five Pandavas Consortium, Consortium of Super System Ultima-Huawei, Telkom and XL.

The East package is covering 35 districts / cities in the eastern region along the 5,681 KM on the sea and land with an estimation cost of US $ 143.18 million, the project will be participated by PT iForte Infotek Solutions, Indosat, Consortium of PT Matra Mandiri Prima PT Hitachi High-Technologies Indonesia- PT Partibandar Main, Consortium of Super System Ultima-Huawei, Telkom and Huawei.

Palapa Ring project will be undertaken through a government partnerships with business entities (KPBU) scheme based on the Presidential Decree No. 38/2015 on Government Cooperation with Business Entities in the Provision of Infrastructure.

In the beleid signed by President Joko Widodo mentioned the entities includes the state, enterprises, private enterprises, foreign enterprises, and cooperatives. The auction winner-or appointed directly-will form a business entity implementing the KPBU limited liability.

The presidential decree allows the minister to be responsible for the joint project (PJPK) to finance part of the funding needs. Besides, PJPK can provide tax incentives for business entities. (es)