Syahrial Ali's Blog

On January 16th this year, President Republic of Indonesia has signed a Presidential decree no 7 about Tariff and Type of Non-Tax State Income in the Department of Communication and Information. Similar with other rule or decree, this decree valid from the date of signing. With the enactment of this decree, the previous regulation, namely Regulation No. 28 Year 2005 on the same issue is revoked and declared invalid.

However, exceptions apply to administrative sanctions from the telecommunications operation, because Article 14 mentions in full, that the imposition of tariffs on the types of non-tax state revenue derived from the Organization of Post and Telecommunications such as: a. administrative sanctions in the form of fines for violations of the permit obligation telecommunications network administration and / or basic telephony services; and b. administrative sanctions in the form of fines for breach of obligation of the organization permit value-added telephony services and multimedia services, entered into force 1 (one) year after this Government Regulation set. Hence the imposition of sanctions fines began an effective force on the date of January 16, 2010.

Although previously announced as in press releases dated February 3, 2009, and yet through this press release, the regulator wants to remind the Regulation No. 7 year 2009 to the telecommunications providers so they can prepare themselves better before the enactment of the provisions of the fine sanctions. The consequences of the implementation of such regulation can significantly impact for the telecommunications rules violator.

Below are several important things on Regulation no 7 of year 2009.
1. Administrative sanctions for non-achievable development:
- less than 40% from commitment: IDR 600m
- between 41% to 70% from commitment: IDR 400m
- between 91% to 90% from commitment: IDR 200m
2. Sanction in the form of fine for not meeting service quality standards are set according to prevailing regulation, IDR 200m / item.
3. Sanctions in the form of fines for violations due to the absence of compliance with the provision of interconnection schedule (schedule process of the answer, schedule negotiation process, the process of providing access to schedules, etc.) as stipulated in the regulations, IDR 600m / item.
4. Sanctions in the form of fines for violation of price discrimination and interconnection access, IDR 10b.
5. Sanctions in the form of fines for violations of use of domestic products due to capital expenditures that do not meet the applicable provisions, 15% x (Cons Obligations)% x Capital Expenditures / year.
6. Sanctions in the form of fines for violations of the use of domestic production due to operational expenditures that do not meet the applicable provisions, 15% x (Cons Obligations)% x Operational Expenditures / year.
7. Does not meet the minimum services which must be provided, IDR 10m / service.

(translated from www.postel.go.id)

Since a month ago, Indonesian Telecommunication Regulatory Body (BRTI) has released an announcement about vacancies for their committees. On these vacancies, BRTI will recruit 5 committees which consist of expert from the field of telecommunication, information technology, public policy, law and economic. Current committee members from independent or public are: Dr. Ir. Bambang P. Adiwiyoto, M.Sc, Ir. Koesmarihati, IPM, Kamilov Sagala, SH, MH, Hery Nugroho, SE, M.Si, dan Ir. Heru Sutadi, M.Si., while from government is Prof. Abdullah Alkaff, PhD. The chairman of BRTI is Basuki Yusuf Iskandar who is also as Director General of Post and Telecommunication. Actually all independent committees have finished their service.

However, up to 5 days before the 2nd closing date only few participant who apply for the committee members. The closing date is Nov 11th, 2008. This date is actually an extension of previous closing date, Nov 4th. Only 19 participants so far and DG Postel is worry about this. Gatot Dewa S. Broto, public relation of DG Postel said that there will be a special meeting to resolve the problem.

There are many possible reasons why the interest is very low. Firstly, to be a committee member you should be an expert in the corresponding field. Secondly, some thinks that the reward that was received was not in accordance with responsibility that was carried out. And lastly, many realizes that the challenge and the responsibility of BRTI in the future will be very complicated.

Anyway, BRTI should exist. A full effort shall be done to make this body remains exist.

A special task force in Indonesian Communication and Information Ministry has made a press release concerning the Public consultation on BWA. The public are invited to give comment for the new BWA white paper (language: Indonesian) that just released. The response shall be received by October 25th.

This consultancy is meant to complete the previous white paper released on November 2006. Apart from public’s consultations, this document compilation was based on inputs from the existing broadband organizers and stakeholder in telecommunications, and references from several international forums like results of the session WRC-2007,

This document focus on the government intention to spread out the service of wide band acces. Nevertheless, the meaning of this event not only relate to a new telecommunication services,  but  far more significant than that. By being spread out the broad band wirleless access,  Indonesia enter a new telecommunications environment. Old environment that was characterized by the narrow band for the voice moved to the wideband for multimedia, and the network of the PSTN will  begin to converge with  the global network of the Internet in which its architectures and capabilities are completely different.

If you read the document carefully then you will know that the Indonesian Telecommunication regulator will release a regulation concerning BWA in 2.3GHz and 3.3GHz. Hopefully, Indonesia will have broadband services in the near future.