ASIA across the span of the country become digitally connected .

Moratel ’ s CTO , Michael McPhail , says the company is passionate about delivering connectivity to some of the more remote parts of country , but admits that the topographical and geographical challenges are considerable .

He explains : “ We ’ ve won two major projects from the government , West Package and East Package and that ’ s part of that overall broadband plan for us to connect different locations and areas which have limited fiber infrastructure right now , so that we can extend that reach out to the remote areas of Indonesia and connect the islands together . For East Package , Moratel joined together with Smartfren and Inti Bangun Sejahtera forming a consortium .

“ There ’ s a huge push in infrastructure deployment in general in Indonesia . I think we ’ re recognised

as being a leader in the space , but we ’ re also recognised as being truly independent . The operators in Indonesia have limited sharing on any real activities or projects . I think Moratel is seen as being independent , and because of that I think people feel more comfortable dealing with us .

“ One of the things that they ’ re all very aware of is that it ’ s very , very difficult to get a connection out to a lot of the remote areas of the country . There ’ s a challenging business case to build that connection which is why it ’ s supported by the government .”

The Palapa project will connect Java , where 65 % of the Indonesian population lives , through into Papua . A mixture of submarine and inland cable will be used , and microwave connections will also be needed in Papua because there are certain areas where there

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