Palapa Ring (8)

Actually, there is no significantly observable progress of this Palapa Ring project since my previous post. Only some minor issues can be found as public releases (as of middle January 2009) :

• "Belum ada perkembangan yang berarti dari Palapa Ring. Sekarang masih pembahasan teknis dan prosesnya sedang dilaksanakan," ujar juru bicara konsorsium Palapa Ring Rakhmat Djunaedi, saat ditemui di Wisma Bakrie 2, Kuningan, Jakarta Selatan, Jumat (Bisnis - 9/1/2008) - quick translated --> no significat progress !
  
• Untuk mengerjakan proyek tersebut, lanjut Rakhmat, sudah terdapat empat vendor jaringan yang berminta untuk mengikuti tender, yaitu Alcatel Lucent, NSW, Tyco, dan NEC. Keempat vendor tersebut akan mengikuti tender untuk semua cluster - Tyco returns ?? How about Fujitsu ??
  
• Consortium members (no changes) : Telkom, ISAT, XL, BTEL
• Agreed consortium budget (no changes) : USD 180 mn (may be enough after network design adjustment)
• Minister of ICT M. Nuh has explicitly said that tax incentives for optical cables will be issued this year - questionmark is that whether these incentives are only for Palapa Ring project?! If not, well, it's time to build your domestic fiber infrastructure ! :-D