Lenny Septiani writing for Katadata, is reporting that Huawei is building 110,000 internet towers across Indonesia. The Chinese company is also testing technology that will allow the internet to reach areas covered in mountains.
Huawei said that the company has built 110,000 Base Transceiver Stations or BTS towers in Indonesia. The technology giant from China is also developing RuralStar Pro to solve internet connectivity problems in remote areas.
RuralStar Pro is a wireless broadband with LTE main features. “The first trial of RuralStar Pro was conducted in Indonesia,” said Vice President Director of the Board Business Environment Huawei Indonesia James Sun at the Huawei Indonesia Media Salon at the Huawei ASEAN Academy campus in CIBIS Park, South Jakarta, Wednesday (23/11), reports Septiani.
The smartphone manufacturer has been operating in Indonesia for 22-years. “The results (of the trial) are very satisfying. It can be connected and achieve the goals of the program,” he added.
He explained, Rural Star applied innovation to the radio base station design, namely using the ability to integrate baseband, radio transmission equipment, and LTE for wireless backhaul, in one module.
With the LTE concept for backhaul, operator spectrum, which is usually only used for radio access to user devices, can now be used as access between radio base stations. This tool is claimed to be able to reduce transmission rental costs that were previously incurred by operators such as for the use of microwaves and satellites.
According to Katadata, there are three main reasons Huawei implemented RuralStar Pro:
- The location of the site is remote and difficult to access
- No electricity
- Cellular operators are worried about low revenue
RuralStar Pro is considered suitable for implementation in Indonesia, because it has many curved plains that are not accessible by the internet because they’re covered by mountains. Backhaul relays can connect sites even if there are obstacles in the middle.
“Only RuralStar Pro has a backhaul relay feature that can connect micro sites to remote areas,” said Huawei Solutions engineer Audrey Melania Sutanto. RuralStar Pro also has a compact device, so people can download it themselves without the help of an engineer. Meanwhile, engineers can still monitor the device remotely.
“The module is all in one BTS, so the power consumption is lower,” he said. “For example, our competitor offers RuralStar but the components are separate. Huawei only has one module to activate all sites.”
RuralStar Pro uses an omni-antenna. While sites generally use sector antennas or direction antennas that provide connections in certain sectors. “RuralStar Peo provides a 360-degree connection,” said Audrey.
Source: Katadata
