Indonesia's Telecommunications and Information Accessibility Agency (BAKTI) said that it plans to complete construction of 630 base station towers in “unforeseeable areas” by the end of this year, despite ongoing challenges of accessibility and security.
According to the official Antara news agency, “unforeseeable areas” means areas with inhospitable geographical conditions as well as low levels of security, which pose serious challenges for infrastructure provider partners to install network equipment.
Yulis Widyo Marfiah, acting director of telecommunications and information services at BAKTI, told Antara that base station construction in such areas remains a significant challenge.
She added that the security and geographic conditions in eastern Indonesia, particularly the province of Papua, are the most challenging areas for deploying telecoms infrastructure.
Marfiah also said that BAKTI – which operates under the supervision of the Ministry of Communication and Informatics (Kominfo) – is collaborating with the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI) and the National Police (Polri) to make sure base station deployments in those areas goes smoothly.
That said, Marfiah added that military support for security is limited, as they have other priorities.