Getting 10Gbps Home Fiber Connections by 2015 Sounds Great, But…

Earlier this month, Telkom Akses announced its 10Gbps Internet infrastructure project. The wholly owned subsidiary of Telkom plans to link up 20 million homes to the internet using fiber optic cables, unifying its currently diversified network. The project sounds quite ambitious but if executed well, will help the country catch up with the rest of the region as far as internet penetration and connection quality are concerned.
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Hackathon Code for Vote Pemilu 2014 di Bandung Dihadiri 200 Peserta

Perkumpulan Untuk Permilu dan Demokrasi (Perludem) pada akhir minggu ini mengadakan hackathon Code for Vote menggunakan API informasi Pemilu yang menyediakan akses kepada berbagai macam data yang berhubungan dengan keperluan pemilihan umum tahun ini. Acara yang dilangsungkan selama dua hari ini dihadiri sekitar 200 peserta dan juri dari beberapa pihak di antaranya DailySocial serta Komisi Pemilihan Umum.
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Mobile Carriers Must Rediscover Themselves to Survive The Onslaught of Communications Apps

Last year Viber CEO Talmon Marco took the fight to the telco companies around the world. On stage at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, he described how Viber had introduced various features to text messaging in just two years that SMS still did not have after decades. This year, WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum announced voice calling for WhatsApp at the same event. The war between telco infrastructure companies and communication services companies is becoming more intense.
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Telegram Is A Big Winner From WhatsApp’s Recent Service Issues But Its Security Claims Are Questionable

WhatsApp’s acquisition by Facebook surprised everyone last week as it became perhaps the largest startup acquisition in history with the company valued at US$16 billion. Unfortunately for WhatsApp, as if almost on cue, the service went down the day after the announcement for roughly two days delivering at best intermittent connectivity for all 450 million users of the app. This however, proved to be a boon for other messaging apps, especially Telegram, an open source clone of WhatsApp.

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Facebook May Have Also Acquired WhatsApp to Avoid Future Competition

WhatsApp co-founder and CEO Jan Koum insisted that the Facebook deal to acquire WhatsApp would not have happened if Facebook were to interfere in WhatsApp’s operations. With Facebook’s resources, WhatsApp may not have to worry too much about having to generate revenue but as Koum said in his blog post, everything remains as it is, including the $0.99 a year subscription service. This acquisition gives Facebook protection against potential competition that it may have had to face if WhatsApp falls to another company’s hands.

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Mark Zuckerberg: Advertising is Not the Way to Monetize Messaging Systems

Instagram was Facebook’s blockbuster deal back in April 2012 when the company announced that it was acquiring the photo sharing network for $1 billion, a deal that ultimately closed at $715 million in Q3 2012. The discrepancy in price was due to Facebook’s falling stock price at that time and the fact that over 60 percent of the acquisition was paid in shares. Instagram slowly rolled out its revenue strategy through implementing in-stream ads in late 2013. With this WhatsApp deal, some fear that it will also follow the advertising path.
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Photo Sharing Plays a Big Part in Facebook’s Acquisition of WhatsApp

If you thought that Viber’s acquisition by Rakuten last week was a major news in the mobile industry, today’s $19 billion Facebook acquisition of WhatsApp would be a massive earthquake sending shockwaves across the entire planet. With Instagram and now WhatsApp under its ownership, Facebook becomes an even larger photo-sharing entity on the planet.

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Kecil Kemungkinan Pemerintah Tutup Telkomsel dan Indosat Terkait Dugaan Penyadapan oleh Australia

Sebagai tindak lanjut tersingkapnya tabir informasi dari New York Times bahwa pemerintah Australia memiliki akses untuk menyusup ke jaringan komunikasi milik Telkomsel dan Indosat, Menteri Komunikasi dan Informatika (Menkominfo) Tifatul Sembiring mengeluarkan peringatan bagi kedua operator tersebut dan mengancam akan menutup kedua perusahaan tersebut jika terbukti berperan aktif dalam proses penyusupan tersebut. Telkomsel sejauh ini merupakan operator telekomunikasi terbesar di Indonesia dengan 120 juta pelanggan dan Indosat dengan 50 juta pelanggan.

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The Government Isn’t Going to Shut Down Telkomsel and Indosat Following Australian Spying Allegations

Following the revelations by the New York Times that the Australian government has access to snoop in on phone communications made through Indonesia’s Telkomsel and Indosat cellular networks, Indonesia’s minister for communications Tifatul Sembiring issued a warning on Tuesday that both telco companies may face shutdown if found to be active parties in the breach. Telkomsel is the leading mobile company in the country with over 120 million subscribers and Indosat is among the top three with over 50 million subscribers.

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