Challenges and Opportunities of Telecommunications Infrastructure Development
in Probolinggo Regency
Yanuar Eka P*1, Meriko Dian Candra Iwana1, AR. Rohman Taufiq Hidayat2
1
Student of Urban and Regional Planning Department, University of Brawijaya
2
Urban and Regional Planning department, University of Brawijaya
Email : yanuarprasetya14@gmail.com
Abstract - Information and communication technology (ICT)
is one of the most important sectors for a regional
development, including rural areas. It provides social
interaction, education, agricultural systems, and alsoas well
as women and youth empowerment for villagers (World
Bank, 2005). In the six largest provinces in Indonesia,
namely East Java, West Java, Central Java, Banten, North
Sumatera and Jakarta, telecommunication network services
only reached 31% of the total rural areas. In East Java
province, the telecommunication network service has
reached 60% of its total rural areas. Probolinggo district has
a total of 238 BTS and 179 towers that serve the entire
region in Probolinggo Regency, in which whereas 80% of
rural communities are already using the telecommunication
medias both wired and wireless telecommunications. In
order Tto overcome itmanage the demand, equal networks
and telecommunications distribution has been implemented
by the government. The program is written included in a
master plan of telecommunication networks (i.e. cell plan) .
enacted in 2010Probolinggo Regency established cell plan in
2010 and implemented since then. This study aimed to
identify opportunities and challenges in the development of
telecommunications infrastructure, and to address the
impact of infrastructure development and its conflict in
society. To achieve it, literature reviews and in depth
methods were employed. We found, infrastructure
development brings investment opportunity. The service
providers have great willingness to catch this opportunity. In
On the other side, new tower constructions have elicited
social conflict. Community does not agree if the new BTS is
within their vicinity close to their home. The cell plans have
a role to overcome this problem. However, many challenges
are still exist. Just a few villagers know how the cell plan
works. Government needs more efforts to spread the
information to the villagers. If the cell plan can be
implemented correctly, economic opportunity and
infrastructure sufficient service can be obtained at same
time.
Keywords - Telecommunication, infrastructure, rural
I. INTRODUCTION
Information Commumication Technology (ICT) holds
an important role in achieving the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) by enhancing access
towards telephony networks, both fixed lines and
wireless, measured by teledencity (Banderlipe, 2013).
Given such role, the development of ICT should not be
concentrated on urban society, but also on ones in the
rural areas often lacking of telecommunication network.
In addition, currently ICT has been efficiently
implemented in the form of rural media centre, thus it
provides crucial impacts on the community relationship,
local capacity development, education, agriculture
system, as well as empowerment for women and youth
(World Bank, 2005)
Compared to more advanced countries,
telecommunication infrastructure in developing countries
is considerably inadequate to accommodate social and
economic needs. The disparity between the facilities in
urban and rural areas within the developing countries is
often even more acute (Kayani and Dymond, 1997). In
India, the barrier that faces ICT development is more to
the designing and building technologies and networks that
suited for the needs of their citizens. Along side the
growth of the Internet, India needs to provide
telecommunication infrastructure which is suitable,
sufficient, and has a reliable bandwitdh (Ranga and
Pradhan, 2014).
In Indonesia, the access to telecommunication is still
low, especially in rural areas. Amongst its population of
150 million people, 75% do not have access to fixed line,
mobile phone, or other telecommunication media. In a
more specific manner, 69% of the total villages in
Indonesia are without any access to ICT. In the six largest
provinces in Indonesia namely East Java, West Java,
Central Java, Banten, North Sumatera and Jakarta,
telecommunication service only reached 31% of total
rural area, except for Jakarta which has no rural area
(World Bank, 2005).
Amongst the problems about telecommunication
service scope, the penetration of fixed connection in
Indonesia is under the international standart. In 2009, the
fixed connection penetration only reached 14,9% while
the penetration of cellular phone is 71,9% (Telkom,
2009).
The Indonesian goverment has actually taken several
actions overcome this problem. According to the National
Telecommunication Regulation Agency (BRTI), in 2011,
the telecommunication industry increased rapidly. During
2004-2009 period, the telecommunication development
focused on developing the infrastructure, both on fixed
line telephone connection and wireless telephone
connection.
In addition, the growth of the infrastructure are good
enough, the Indonesians government has a program to
improve the ICT. The programs purpose is to increasing
services for telecommunications and information access
in rural areas. One of its program is Universal Service
Obligation or USO that has been arranged in Permen
Kominfo Nomor 32 tahun 2008. This program includes
service for telephone network in 31.800 villages and the
internet network in 5.748 village in each district.
From those problems and potentials, we know that
actually the telecommunication development program has
been implemented well, yet still needs improvement in the which are 84 BTS and 104 towers and the rest spread over
coverage area. Development programs just focussed on 18 in other district.
urban areas, whereas in rural area, the infrastructure
development is still low. In East Java, one of the largest
province in Indonesia, the number of underserved village
reached 40% of total rural area.
Probolinggo regency is one of the region in East Java
province which has a large rural area. Probolinggo has 179
BTS and 238 tower spread in 24 District. BTS and towers
are generally built on Urban-District area, 84 tower units
are built on 6 Urban Districts while in rural area, the
number of towers is only 2-9 units in each District. That
condition also caused a problem about coverage area of Figure 1 The distribution of BTS and Tower in Probolinggo Regency
telecommunication service which has not spread evenly. Source: Probolinggo Regencys Cell Plan, 2014
In order to boost its telecommunication service access, Distribution of towers and BTS in Probolinggo
the local government of Probolinggo established a Regency is dominated by private telecommunication
masterplan of telecommunication network (i.e Cell Plan) in providers, i.e. Telkomsel , XL Axiata , and Indosat. Among
2010. The cell plan includes the development planning of the total of 239 BTS, Telkomsel operates 91 units of BTS.
telecommunication infrastructure, both BTS and
telecommunication towers. The Cell Plan regulates
building permits, including standards and location of new
towers.
Despite such effort from the local government in
Probolinggo, underserved rural areas still exist. Due to this
case, this research was undertaken to identify challenges
and opportunity on the development of telecommunication
infrastructure in Probolinggo Regency.

II. METHODOLOGY
The approach for this research was mainly qualitative.
A set of literature reviews was done by descriptively
analyzing secondary data from the local government as
well as related previous research. This study discussed the
use of ICT in Indonesia, such as the telecommunication
network services and the telecommunication infrastructure
demand. This study aimed to idenitfy the challenges and
opportunities about telecommunication infrastructure
including the policies and goverment programs and plans
which relate to the telecommunication infrastructure
development.
III. RESULTS
Charts 1 Number of the tower according to telecommunications
provider in the Probolinggo Regency
Source: Probolinggo Regencys Cell Plan, 2014
Eventhough Telkomsel is well-known for its biggest
coverage area, the services does not seem to cover all area
in Probolinggo Regency. In some places, there are still no-
provider service, so the area requires more BTS or Towers
to overcome this problem. Inspite of coverage problem,
telecommunciation industries have big opportunities to
invest. It is known that areas without coverage area is still
dominant, especially in south area of Probolinggo Regency
and the area is a promising location for investment in the
telecommunication industry.

A. Telecommunication in Probolinggo Regency

Probolinggo Regency is located on 112 50 113 30
West Longitude and 7 40 8 10 South Lattitude. This
region has an area of 1.696,28 Km wide. Administratively,
Probolinggo regency is divided into 325 villages and 24
Districts. The area is dominated by the nun-residential
usages, such as fields, farm and forest.
Based on a survey in 2014, in the area of Probolinggo
Regency there are 239 BTS and 179 existing towers that Figure 2 Telkomsels coverage services are in Probolinggo regency
are located in 24 District (Probolinggo regencys Cell Plan, Sumber : Probolinggos Regency Cell Plan, 2014
2014). There are six Urban-district namely Sukapura, C. Problems and Potentials
Leces, Paiton, Kraksaan, Tongas and Sumberasih, within
 This research discovers that there are several reasons
behind Probolinggo Regencys ICT problems. Firstly,
locals do not seem to accept the new tower development
Plan, particularly those adjasent to residential locations.
The development of telecommunication infrastructure has
met difficult situation in several villages, such as in the
village of Pohsangit Leres, where land owners do not want
to approve BTS development. Although it has been set as
BTS development area and also has been studied by
researchers, there are still conflict in the society because
people think that the BTS could negatively bring impact on
health.
On the other side, the service providers have great
willingness to invest because Probolinggo has the potential
in the number of mobile phone user. In 2019, celluler
phone users reached 890.159 in number of users. Based
upon this condition, 779 BTS are needed to meet the
demmand of telecommunication (Probolinggos Cell Plan,
2014).
From that projection, Probolinggo regency would need
an addition of 540 units of BTS. In this condition,
investment opprortunity emerged, especially in
telecemmunication infrastructure services. According to the
plan, The goverment of Probolinggo Regency has started to
consider a joint tower development program.
Figure 3 The joint towers plan in Probolinggo regency
Sumber : Probolinggos Regency Cell Plan, 2014
D. Opportunity
Besides of the opportunities that come from the The
Goverment of Probolinggo Regency, telecommunication
infrastructure development opportunities also come from
the Central Goverment as mentioned on The
Telecommunication and Informatic Act (Peraturan Menteri
Komunikasi dan Informatika Nomor 10 tahun 2008 tentang
Kewajiban pelayanan universal telekomunikasi). Recently,
this program has built 30.182 Desa Berdering, 100 Desa
Pinter, 5.330 District Internet Media Center (PLIK) as
well as 846 units of Mobile Internet Media Center (MLIK).
Actually, Probolinggo Regency has been implemented as
MLIK and PLIK program but the service ari still not
optimal yet. It is therefore fair to say that there is
tremendous potential to create equity in telecommunication
networks especially in rural areas.
E. Challenges
The first challenge that face the telecoomunication
infrastructure development is service equality. Inequality is
the most common problems, not only in urban and rural
areas in Probolinggo Regency, but also in Indonesia.
In Indonesia, inequality occured between Java-Sumatra
region with other region in Indonesia. This condition has
brought impact to many aspects including to the
telecommunication deelopment policy.
Figure 4 Interntets house distributed in Indonesia
Sumber : Central Statistic Agency, 2008
The second challenge is the penetration number of
Indonesias ICT is lower than other countries in Asia.
Comapared to ASEAN countries such as Singapore,
Brunei, Malaysia, Thailand, Phillipines and Vietnam, the
penetration number of Indonesia is only 2.13 on 2007. In
addition, the peneration number of Indonesias internet is
also lower than the ASEAN average. Indonesias internet
penetration is only 9% while ASEAN average is 15%.
IV. DISCUSSION
A. Study Comparison
In generally, Probolinggo has two problems in its
telecommunication infrastructure development. The first is
about social conflict and second is about inequiality.
In India, the barrier that faces the development of ICT
is social conflict in infrastructure development. The
strategic role of ICT in rural areas could ensure that both
the knowledge and empowerment that result from
increased information exchange are shared more equitably.
(Ranga and Pradhan, 2014).
That problem relates with Probolinggo Regency ICTs
problem which is merely caused by lack of socialization
about telecommunication development to the people. The
people believe that Telecmmunication Tower building
cause several health problem. Little effort has been done to
disseminate information new tower building has been
standarized and planned well to meet the health standards.
Also, Prbolinggos Cell Plan which includes rules and
policy about telecommunication infrastructure Building has
not been evenly communicated to the community. Should
be, Cell plan program must accomodate social aspects, and
also think about the society readiness to accept the
programs and development of new infrastructure.
Socialization is also needed to be held in order to provide
knowledge to the community relating to telecomunication
development program. The program should not only relate
to physical and Economic development, but also closely
related to social empowerment.
Inequality of teleceommunication access service has
surely become a problem in Telecommunciation
development. Inequiality of telecommunication network
caused access gap and risk of further isolation, need a multi
dimensional partnership strategy to harness new
technolgies in the service of sustainable rural development.
Related to this problem, Probolinggo regency still has
underserved network area, especially in rural areas on
south Probolinggo. Goverment has actually set PLIK and
MLIK programs but they do not seem to be effective yet.
This problem should be overcome by new
telecommunciation infrastrusture planning and rules, so the
equality problem can be solved.
Infrastructure development has a unique character
needing an approach between goverment and rurals society
(Bavnani et all, 2008). The strategy should be: Creating an
enabling environment for competition of service providers,
developing the communication infrastructure, developing
locally relevant content which meets the needs of the poor
as well as providing education training programms in ICT.
B. Cell Plan Evaluation
The Pell plan contains ICT development plans in
Probolinggo Regency. According to the plan, the
telecommunication infrastructure development in this
regency focuses on three things: Development of joint
towers, the construction of new towers in underserved area,
and limitation of tower developments in urban areas.
Joint tower development aims to control the
development of new towers in urban area, by optimizing
and modifying existing towers to ones that could cater
several towers at the same time. Based on the number of
existing towers, a total of 179 has the potential to be
utilized as joint towers which is divided into 118 zones
with distributed locations.
Apart from technical matters, dissemination of new
regulation is also an issue when it comes to development
actions, especially in rural communities. With the Cell Plan
being effectively enacted, adequate socialization would
contribute to smoother and better plan implementation as
people would be given a clearer perspective on the benefits
of the plan.
Technically The ICT development plan in Probolinggo
Regency has been already done to overcome inequality
problems with new towers plan in underseved area. For
community problems, The government should be able to
finish it by administering an understanding as well as
information on the community.
In addition to solving these problems, the Cell Plan
should also accommodate infrastructure problems in urban
areas with limited land which needs to be controlled.
Solution could be taken by evaluating the tower density
and evely distributing service to cater underserved areas.
V. CONCLUSION
The identification stage suggests that the opportunities
and challenges related to ICT infrastructure development in
Probolinggo Regency are associated with several things.
Opportunities come from the high interest of investors or
provider to invest new infrastructure and support from the
government on telecmmunication infrastructure
development with the cell plan. The challenge facing are
related to infrastructure development inequality and the
development does not consider the social condition
adequately.
Opportunities possessed by Probolinggo Regency
should can be used as a solution in overcoming the
problems of inequality because those opportunities is
derived from inside and outside such as Cell Plan. If the
cell plan can be implemented correctly, economic
opportunity and infrastructure sufficient service can be
obtained at same time.
For problems related to conditions of the community,
The goverment should accommodate social aspects on their
plan, the plan that not only accomodate the economic and
physical aspects, but also social aspect to overcome social
conflict in society.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Author would like to address his sincerest gratiture to
all parties which have provided tremendous support for this
Research. Firstly, to the Probolinggo Regency Goverment
for its information given about telecommunication
condition in the regency. Secondly, to Mr. Dadang Meru
Utomo of Urban and Regional Planning Department,
Brawijaya University for his insights and help during the
development of this research. Last but not least, to all URP
students of 2012.
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