A very recent report from Akamai shows that Indonesia holds 7th position as the slowest country in terms of narrowband connectivity.
Narrowband is a term used to describe an old model Internet connection speed commonly associated with a dial-up connection. This means using voice-quality lines for data transfer, and no matter how hard it is to believe this, but this type of connection is actually very popular and widely adopted in most countries.
In Indonesia, this number is surprisingly growing in a very slow rate although I’m guessing that this is because of the increasing internet adoption in areas outside the big cities. Most people in the big cities now have easy access to broadband and ditching their dial-up connection in exchange to affordable broadband home data plans and super cheap mobile plans.
From a year-over-year perspective, only Indonesia and India saw increased levels of narrowband adoption, and the levels of growth are fairly significant for both countries. though narrowband adoption levels grew 69% year-over-year in Indonesia, it appears that the government there is looking to actively improve the connectivity situation within the country, signing the “Jakarta Declaration For meaningful broadband” on april 14, 2011.
The declaration seeks to “bring the benefits of broadband-enabled services rapidly and meaningfully to at least 30% of Indonesian society by 2014” through new wireless network technologies, affordable broadband-capable connected devices, the completion of a national fiber-optic backbone infrastructure, and public/private partnerships.
This report from Akamai is available for free download here.
