World Bank: Indonesia's Internet Access Remains Unequal Between Rural and Urban Areas

The World Bank notes that internet access in Indonesia was uneven until 2019. This is due to the existing internet connectivity gap for adults aged 15 and over in urban and rural areas.

Specifically, only 36% of adults in rural areas had internet access. Meanwhile, adults in urban areas had significantly broader coverage, reaching 62%.

Nevertheless, internet connectivity in both areas had improved compared to 2011. At that time, internet connectivity among urban residents was only 20%, while rural residents had only 6%.

According to the World Bank, the Indonesian government has implemented various measures to reduce internet access inequality. One of these is the implementation of the national fiber optic backbone infrastructure project, Palapa Ring.

The Palapa Ring project, completed in 2019, successfully connected 514 cities/regencies to the national backbone network. As a result, the number of adults with internet access has increased, particularly on the larger Indonesian islands.

However, the government's work is not yet finished, as the internet access gap remains. This is evident in the fact that only one-third of adults in Papua have internet access. This contrasts sharply with the 55% of adults in Java-Bali who have internet access in their daily lives.