Attention in Indonesia
Indonesia is faced with similar problems.
According to the association of Internet Internet service providers, around the fifth of the population in the vast archipelago has no adequate internet access.
But while the Indonesian government has hosted a cutting -edge link in the country and has granted commercial licenses in May of last year, analysts say that it remains suspicious of allowing the company to fill the shortcomings.
It is currently not known how many operational starlink devices in Indonesia and the company's initial investment was modest at 1.8 million US dollars.
However, with Musk present, Starlink was launched with fanfare in Bali with a project to connect medical centers to the fast internet service. However, in at least one center, the service was disabled shortly after due to an apparent unstable connection.
There is pressure from traditional telecommunications companies on the government to ensure that the rules of the game are even after decades of investment in an infrastructure network that could be redundant by Musk satellites, said Karl Gading Sayudha, a defense, security and international relations analyst at Kiroyan Partners, a consulting company based in Jakarta.
“These telecommunications suppliers have invested billions of rupees. They therefore call into question the government's efforts and the government's responsibility to ensure that it will be a fair game,” he said.
“They ask the government to regulate this before it goes too far.”
The Indonesian Association of Internet Service providers urged the government in the middle of last year to freeze the starlink license because it had “the potential to disrupt the sustainability and independence of the local ISP industry,” said its president, Muhammad Arif Antgg.
Telkom, the state telecommunications giant in Indonesia and the Indonesian association of telecommunications suppliers have also called for a level playground in terms of regulation.
Starlink “may seem aggressive” to these companies, which makes them insecure about how Starlink could develop, said Darynaufal Mlyyaman, lecturer in the study program of international relations at Kristen Indonesia University.
“Because on paper, it is a really unbalanced competition,” he said, noting that Starlink has minimal local staff and does not contribute to the infrastructure of the Indonesian territorial network.
The cost of Starlink remains high, however, and it is an obstacle to generalized adoption. Its residential plan begins at 750,000 rupees (US $ 45) per month, only put it in the reach of higher income employees. This represents double the cost of a local operator, not to mention the installation costs.
But as has happened in other countries, the Starlink price could quickly drop as more and more users are registered.
It also has plans this year to offer mobile plans which, if authorized, would put the company in direct competition with other telecommunications suppliers for a lucrative market of hundreds of millions of customers.
Its prices are much cheaper than other satellite internet suppliers, which caused complaints from Satellite Association Indonesia, which qualified Starlink Starlink offers. The country's anti-monopoly guard dog judged last year that they were promotional, not unfair.
