Toekang IT

Hello, VoIP Rakyat?

Sep 13, 2006 19:17

Has anyone heard of this guy? Dr Onno Purbo, one of Indonesia's most prominent information technology advocates who introduced several alternatives of Internet technologies, including VoIP-based free voice telecommunication that's called VoIP Rakyat?

Withdrawn from the Indonesian civil service and retired as a lecturer four years ago, he is a well-known maverick driven by the simple vision of an Indonesian knowledge-based society.

Purbo has been spending most of his time writing thousands of articles and more than 30 books on Internet technology, mostly in the Indonesian language, as an attempt to educate Indonesians on IT.

Indonesia recently faced multidimensional crisis: Financial crisis signed by the free fall of its currency exchange rate to the US dollar; political crisis signed by a four-times presidential turnover in less than a decade; continued inter-ethnic and religious conflict; and terrorist attacks.

One of the biggest problems of voice communication (as well as Internet) in Indonesia is the price. It's too expensive.

Just a few days after the government decision to increase the tariff (including phone rates) was announced in the beginning of 2003, the first Public Gatekeeper of VoIP Merdeka was set up. Operated by volunteers--Purbo and his friends--VoIP Perjuangan or "VoIP Struggle" as it was originally known was established to enable PC-to-PC communication between any Internet user in the country deploying a call number system chosen by the Internet community.

Dr Onno W. Purbo (photo: idrc.ca)

Not so satisfied with the renamed VoIP Merdeka or "Liberated VoIP" technology, Purbo and his colleagues then found that SIP (session initiation protocol) technology was considered a better way to provide voice telecommunication rather than VoIP H.323-based VoIP Merdeka.

SIP is an application-layer control (signaling) protocol for creating, modifying, and terminating sessions with one or more participants. These sessions include Internet telephone calls, multimedia distribution, and multimedia conferences.

Then in November 2005, they declared VoIP Rakyat ("rakyat" literally means people). Pioneered by Anton Raharja, Abdul Hanan and Moses Kurniawan from ICT Center Jakarta--some of Purbo's cadre--a VoIP site was launched at www.voiprakyat.or.id.

The Web

VoIP Rakyat uses SIP, which was developed on the Internet by Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). As a result, VoIP Rakyat is more powerful than VoIP Merdeka which was using H.323 of International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

At the moment, VoIP Rakyat can be used only for PC-to-PC calls and PSTN/GSM-to-PC calls.

So, what's the difference with Yahoo! Messenger with Voice? According to Raharja, since VoIP Rakyat servers are located domestically in Jakarta and connected through Ethernet with the IIX network, its voice quality much better with fewer delays. "Just like a common telephone."

Even though you are behind a NAT/firewall, you still can use VoIP Rakyat. However, he confessed that not all NAT/Firewall configurations can be bypassed by signaling protocol and media implemented by VoIP Rakyat.

To start this service, users can simply download the Manual Idefisk (in Powerpoint) from the Web site, then follow the instructions.

They can sign up their free account at VoIP Rakyat's Web site and Pulver. They can download any SIP Softphone drivers and install them. There are some recommended SIP Softphones for this purpose, such as x-lite or SJPhone. "By using computer and Softphone, someone can make a call through VoIP Rakyat," said Raharja.

If you want to be able to be reached by subscribers of Indonesia's State-owned fixed-line provider (Telkom), you should own a recognizable number. Instead of getting it from Indonesia, you can obtain the number for free by registering your SIP account at IPKall (Washington State numbers) and Gossiptel (UK numbers).

There are four choices of area codes and all numbers obtained from IPKall and Gossiptel can be contacted from Telkom network and all PSTN (Public switched telephone network) around the world.

"As a call receiver, we don't need to pay any penny to receive a call on the Internet using our free Washington DC numbers," Purbo exlained.

However, according to Purbo, someone who calls by using Telkom's PSTN services should pay international call to contact VoIP Rakyat that is using Washington DC or UK numbers.

Indeed, "VoIP Rakyat technology is also supported by interoperable 'VoIP rebel networks' around the world. The rebel community handled by SIPBroker," said Purbo.

Indonesia, with a population of over 210 million, has nine million fixed lines operated by Telkom and around 45 million mobile phone subscribers.

Asked for any obstacles regarding this effort, Raharja said that it's mostly the people. Most of them still aren't aware of the benefit of VoIP Rakyat as a free communications means. Regarding this people awareness issue, they are currently conducting a series of seminars and roadshows to promote VoIP Rakyat.

VoIP Rakyat is one out of a long list of initiatives supported by Dr Purbo in the country.

As usual, he is always humble about his struggles' motives. "To build Indonesian people's own telco without Indonesian telco," he smiles.

His main goal is to create a community-based telecommunication infrastructure that is built by the people, run by the people, and for the people. A totally different concept and significant paradigm shift as compared to the traditional telecommunications infrastructure.

"VoIP Rakyat is an embryo of Telkom Rakyat," he said optimistically. "Built by the people, run by the people, for the people."

Hello? Hello!

Recent Comments

 

Most Discussed

 

Browse Archive