Papua Households Have the Lowest National Rate of Telecommunications Access

According to 2017 data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), Papua had the lowest percentage of households with telecommunications expenditure, at only 53.29%. This means that 46.71% of households in Papua had no telecommunications expenditure at all.

Next were East Nusa Tenggara (83.85%), West Nusa Tenggara (85.19%), North Maluku (85.39%), and Maluku (85.39%). These five provinces remained below the national average of 90.1% in 2017.

According to a World Bank report titled *ICT in Education Strategy and Implementation Plan in Papua*, the low telecommunications expenditure in Papua is due to limited access resulting from high service provision costs and the largely low-income population.

In Papua's larger cities, mobile phone networks are the primary access method, with around 1.1 million subscribers. However, most villages still rely on satellite radio.

(Read More: Palapa Ring Increases Potential for Mobile Phone Penetration in Indonesia)

To accelerate equitable access to telecommunications in 3T regions (Remote, Outermost, and Forward), the government launched a project called Palapa Ring. Palapa Ring is a national fiber optic network development project that will reach 34 provinces, 440 cities/regencies across Indonesia, with a total undersea cable length of 35,280 kilometers and 21,807 kilometers of land-based cable.

The Palapa Ring project was successfully inaugurated by President Jokowi at the end of 2019. The project is divided into three phases: Palapa Ring West (Riau and Riau Islands to Natuna), Palapa Ring Central (Kalimantan, Sulawesi, North Maluku to the Sangihe-Talaud Islands), and Palapa Ring East (East Nusa Tenggara, Maluku, West Papua, and Papua).

Palapa Ring East is the largest of the three projects, with a total inland fiber optic cable length of 2,453 km and 4,426 km of submarine fiber optic cable.

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