Jakarta - In early March, following an e-tender process, PT APT (Angkasa Prima Teknologi) was appointed by the Maluku Provincial Communication and Information Office as the provider of satellite-based (VSAT) broadband internet for high schools, vocational schools, and madrasahs across nine regencies and two cities (Ambon and Tual) in Maluku Province.
The scope of work covered internet services of up to 6 Mbps for 148 high schools, 41 vocational schools, and 4 madrasahs.
The main challenge of the project was access to these island locations, which relied entirely on ferries and fast boats.
With this internet service, APT helped the Maluku provincial government improve education quality for the national computer-based exams (UNBK). In previous years, students from those 193 schools had to travel to other schools that already had internet access, some even walking and staying overnight in other regencies.
The vocational school exams were successfully held on 16-18 March, while the high school exams scheduled for 30 March-1 April 2020 were cancelled by President Jokowi due to the Covid-19 situation - although APT's satellite internet service was already online at those schools. The project is an important milestone for PT APT on its way to becoming a leading VSAT company in Indonesia, after APT (TRG's satellite division), together with PT Indopratama Teleglobal (IPT), had earlier been appointed as one of Telkomsel's cellular backhauling providers.
