Over three years ago, CDMA2000 1x was still considered a new kid on the block in Indonesia's telecommunications market due to the high number of GSM subscribers at the time. Today, Indonesia has emerged as a new hotbed for CDMA2000 1x deployments due to the rising number of subscribers, high numbers of operators, and the market's positive response.

There are about 45 million people using mobile phones in the country at present, and almost 6 million of them are on CDMA2000.

There are five commercial CDMA2000 operators in Indonesia so far: Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) with TelkomFlexi as its service brand, Indosat with StarOne, Bakrie Telecom with Esia, Mobile-8 with Fren and Sampoerna Telekom Indonesia with Ceria.

Speaking at the CDMA Connecting Indonesia seminar at the Indonesia CDMA Exhibition (ICE) 2006 on Thursday, CDMA Development Group chief operating officer James Person said that CDMA2000 has the competitive advantage required to gain a large share of the country's mobile phone market “because it is very easy for operators to upgrade their services."



CDMA2000 has benefited from the extensive experience acquired through several years of operation of cdmaOne systems. As a result, CDMA2000 is a very efficient and robust technology. It delivers the highest voice capacity and data throughput using the least amount of spectrum, and it can be used to provide services in urban as well as remote areas cost-effectively.

Due to its optimized radio technology, Person explained that CDMA2000 enables operators to invest in fewer cell sites and to deploy them faster, ultimately allowing the service providers to increase their revenues with faster Return On Investment (ROI).

Indonesian Infocom Society (MASTEL) vice president Benny S. Nasution, who was also speaking at the seminar, revealed that this technology is designed to operate in a number of frequency bands with the flexibility to be deployed at 2GHz 3G band (450MHz, 800MHz, 900MHz, 1800MHz, 1900MHz and 2100MHz). “CDMA2000 is also a mature technology, having the first commercial operation in 2000 (SK Telecom, KDDI) with 300 millions current users.”

Nasution stated that there are 66,778 villages in Indonesia, with only 40 percent of the villages covered by a telecommunications infrastructure. Fortunately, the USO program in years 2003-2004 has increased the coverage with 5,354 villages. "But still no telecommunications for 38,837 villages--mostly outside of Java island," he added.

According to him, big operators have no interest to develop rural areas due to the high investment reason. But, in fact, investment costs can be trimmed down by implementing IP-based networks combined with CDMA 2000 1X and EV-DO and satellite communications network since most of the area not covered by telecommunications are outside of the Java island.

Qualcomm Incorporated, a leading developer and innovator of CDMA and other advanced wireless technologies, has been working to introduce 3G technology into rural areas around the world, including Way Kanan in Lampung of Sumatra island and Pacitan village in East Java.

Qualcomm senior director Shawn A. Covell explained that the role of Qualcomm's Wireless Reach Initiative is to empower citizens of the world through effective partnership. "This project empowers underserved communities through the use of third-generation wireless technology (3G), which is based on CDMA2000 1xEV-DO," she said.

According to her, Qualcomm has been conducting the projects in Indonesia (Pacitan village, East Java and Lampung of the island of Sumatra), Thailand (Phang Nga), Vietnam (Hanoi), China (Beijing, Shaanxi and Ningxia), Peru (Clinica Kausay Wasi) and Congo (Kinshasa).

The second Indonesia CDMA Exhibition, which took place on August 23-27 at the Assembly Hall of the Jakarta Convention Center--where I also displayed my most recent book, Planet Digital: Maneuver CDMA di Indonesia (Planet Digital: CDMA Maneuver in Indonesia)--is held with the purpose of gathering together technology owner, operators, network infrastructure vendors, applications and content providers, handset and terminal manufacturer both local and international and other supporting sectors.

According to ICE project director Novelita, with the theme "Let's Share: CDMA--3G for Everyone", it is hoped that the industry can clearly view that the CDMA technology can be implemented in any society whether this is in remote areas or urban cities.

“This theme is moreover expected to support the Indonesian Government for the Universal Service Obligation (USO) program, which is one of those programs like Ringing Villages 2010 and Smarting Villages 2015,” she added.

CDMA2000 technology can, indeed, be benefited socially and profited commercially.

 

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