The Ministry of Communication and Informatics reminded local governments to play a role in accelerating equal distribution of internet access across the country.

“We need collaboration and cooperation with the local government. Without it, we will not be able to maximize our digital infrastructure facilities if it is not connected with people in the regions,” Minister of Communication and Informatics Johnny G. Plate stated during his visit to Manggarai, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), as quoted from a press statement here, Thursday.

Plate cited as an example that in the base transceiver station (BTS) tower development program for equal distribution of internet access in Indonesia, NTT was one of the areas encountering difficulties.

According to Plate, local governments play an important role in the construction of BTS towers by supporting land availability and determining the spatial layout for placing digital infrastructure and service locations that require telecommunication access.

“Once the BTS Tower is built there, the development and spatial plans for villages, sub-districts, and districts will be based on that infrastructure,” he remarked.

The minister noted that involvement of the local government in the construction of BTS was deemed necessary to ensure that it was located in a region with residents and activities. Determination of the place was quite important since it can affect the quality of service.

If the BTS is built with a radius of three kilometers, then it is not optimal if the tower is constructed at the top of a mountain, which is far from community settlements and public service facilities, such as schools, health centers, police offices, and military posts, he emphasized.

Hence, collaboration between the central and regional governments is necessary to optimally utilize the development of digital infrastructure on the upstream side, Plate remarked.

He said the government is building telecommunication infrastructure from upstream to downstream, especially in the underdeveloped, frontier, and outermost (3T) areas, which have not been reached by cellular operators since the areas are not commercially promising.

The minister stated that the telecommunications infrastructure was built to help people have easy access to cellular telecommunications services as part of accelerating digital transformation.

Source: Antara News