INDONESIAN TELKOM 3S SATELLITE TO HELP OVERCOME DIGITAL DIVIDE

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, Feb 10 (Antara) - Indonesia expects to overcome the country's digital divide by providing internet access to all its villages, and consequently promoting tourism, through its new generation satellite, Telkom 3S.         Scheduled to be launched at the Guiana Space Center, Kourou, French Guiana, on February 14 local time or February 15 in Indonesia, the Telkom 3S satellite, when in orbit, will smoothen  telecommunication and facilitate internet connections in villages and remote regions across the country.         As of now, about 30 percent of the country's 74 thousand villages have no access to internet. By the end of this year, all the villages are expected to have internet service.         According to M Ridwan Effendi, secretary of the Policy Research and Telecommunications Center of the Bandung-based Institute of Technology (ITB), the Telkom 3S of PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia will help resolve the issue of the digital divide in the country.         Indonesians have been eagerly awaiting the launch of the Telkom 3S satellite because it can facilitate telecommunication services to even isolated areas of the country.         Thus, the Telkom 3S satellite will help connect all the regions in the Unitary State of Indonesia (NKRI) that has thousands of islands.