REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, SAMARINDA -- Communications and Information Minister Rudiantara is going to announce five telecommunications towers in Indonesia and Malaysia's border region in East Kalimantan and North Kalimantan in mid December.
"The telecommunications towers are located in Mahulu regency in East Kalimantan and Malinau and Nunukan regencies in North Kalimantan," Head of the Office of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Sani said here on Monday (1/12).
Three of the five towers are located in Tiong Ohang village and Long Apari village in Long Apari subdistrict and in Long Lunuk village in Long Pahangay subdistrict. All three towers are located in the Mahulu regency.
The other two towers are located in North Kalimantan. One tower is located in Agung Baru village, Sungai Boh subdistrict, Malinau regency, and the other is located in the Long Layu village, South Krayan district, Nunukan regency.
The tower in Tiong Ohang village started operations last month. It will gradually be followed by others, built by the East Kalimantan government, with direct financial aid being sent to the local districts or through cooperation initiatives with the national army.
"Adding a telecommunications network in the border region is not as easy as it is in the urban areas. The difficulty of access means only the army can build the towers on the frontier," Sani said.
He praised the role played by the army and PT Telkomsel in supporting the construction of the towers.
"The border communities would have remained isolated without access to a telecommunications network if the army had not provided support for its construction or Telkomsel had not provided support for the installation of a Base Transceiver Station," Sani noted.