The Digital Divide in Indonesia
The digital divide in Indonesia arises from infrastructure inequality in regions in Indonesia. This gap occurs in the regions of Western Indonesia, and Eastern Indonesia, especially in urban and rural areas. For example, the Southeast Sulawesi region, where 11.63% of the total households that use the internet both in urban and rural areas or can be said to be very low (BPS 2011).
For example, Wakatobi, where this district experienced rapid development in terms of infrastructure and tourism, but its readiness in adopting a digital environment is still low, because it still does not fulfill aspects of capability, utilization, readiness and use of ICT itself, this is due the ICT adoption process is still dominated by urban communities. The digital divide that occurred in Wakatobi is still at an early stage, due to lack of access, whereas in the National ICT roadmap in 2013, the Indonesian people have entered the information society, namely the linking of fiber optic networks and the improvement of internet broadband, for better service.
Afterward, this gap is also caused by differences in ownership of ICTs, and their use in daily life. Then, from business entities such as telecommunications companies still focus on infrastructure development in urban areas, based on profits, which also affect ICT users.
Furthermore, the lack of information and communication infrastructure in the eastern part of Indonesia is also a factor in the digital divide, for example, the lack of educative services. Lack of internet quality and internet access also affect the lack of internet users in this region, then only two large companies provide telecommunication services here, namely Telkomsel and Indosat, where the lack of bandwidth is a problem in this digital gap.
In addition, the lack of education, knowledge of ICTs also adds to the list of causes of the digital divide, because the infrastructure is not evenly distributed. The need for ICTs has not become a major need for the community, this is due to the lack of motivation to meet information needs, or it can be said that it is not considered important.
The solution that can be used in overcoming this digital divide, among others, is that local governments can bridge infrastructure development and provide free ICTs to the community, then create community capacity building programs through education, training, or the formation of ICT drive communities, and placing people who expert in ICT, which has a vision to develop ICT itself in the region, in a structural position.
In addition, cooperation with parties engaged in the field of ICT can also be a solution to reduce the digital divide, ranging from telecommunications service providers, multimedia companies such as Google Indonesia. This solution must be made sustainable, because many programs have been made but are still temporary, and the ‘elite’ parties should not only seek profits because that is the cause of the digital divide in Indonesia.
