Comments on: Timor: 9 years of Internet, still one ISP and a huge digital gap

By: researcher

researcher — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:08:51 +0000

Dear Sara,

I am just wondering about your stats Feb 2009 that there is only dial up analogue connection. Is this true? I thought hotels provide ADSL and broadband. And that there are 258 hosts – what does ‘host’ mean here? Companies that provide the service? Just wondering where you sourced the two data from?

Thanks.

By: Global Voices dalam bahasa Indonesia » Profil penulis: Sara Moreira

Global Voices dalam bahasa Indonesia » Profil penulis: Sara Moreira — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:10:13 +0000

[...] lewatkan tiga seri tulisan Sara tentang perayaan 9 tahun akses internet di Timor [...]

By: Global Voices Online » Featured Author: Sara Moreira

Global Voices Online » Featured Author: Sara Moreira — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 23:42:19 +0000

[...] sure not to miss Sara's three-part series commemorating the 9th anniversary of internet access in East Timor. Posted by David [...]

By: dani

dani — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 09:34:41 +0000

systema no ekipametu nebee TT uja ne hanesan ekipamentu nebee uluk ema uja iha dinosaurus nia tempu. antigu liu iha mundu.
mais karun teb-tebes iha mundu,pois monopoli nebee mak maka’as tebtebes.
karik TT hanoin timor oan ema mesak beit deit, mais lae belum!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
timor so sedauk bele harii kompanha ida boot hanesan nee maibe atu analisa deit bosokten sira nee timor oan bele hela.
hanesan realidade ida nebee ita hare’e mak depois TT halo ninia produtu foun ba ninia credit card husi $10 mai iha $5 mai iha $2 agora $1 ona ne,ida nee hanesan produtu foun ida nebee TT mak hetan nia benefisiu mais TT koment dehan hatu’un presu!!!!!!!!!!!!!
para povu ki’ik mos bele hetan komunikasaun.
hau lagosta TT ,triste bainhira TT iha Timor.

By: Ken Westmoreland

Ken Westmoreland — Sat, 09 May 2009 13:02:18 +0000

Soekarno, the domain name is now ‘.tl’ The reason why ‘.tp’ was used was because it wasn’t possible to change it. However, even Timor Telecom still uses a ‘.tp’ address http://www.timotelecom.tp – http://www.timotelecom.tl has stopped working.

By: Sara Moreira

Sara Moreira — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 15:46:13 +0000

Hi Charles and Helen!

Thanks for your comments.
Although “the first internet connection” was reportedly “established in 2000 by UNDP” (according to Digital Review of Asia and Pacific 2005 http://www.digital-review.org/) I now believe this may be interpreted as a demagogy (should it be stated “first Internet connection, after the indonesian period”?).

It is not easy to find “citizen journalists” talking about the pre-independence access to telecommunication services, but it will surely be both a challenge and an interesting topic for future GVO articles.

Keep coming back, please!
Best regards,
Sara

By: Helen Hill

Helen Hill — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 07:46:38 +0000

I think there was internet in TImor more than 9 years ago, Lansell Taudevin, in his book, Too Little, Too Late, describes getting emails in the Indonesian Post Office (which although usable, were continually under the surveillance of the Indonesian Military. Also I beleive there was better telecommunications infrastructure through the Post Offices then which don’t seem to have been rebuilt, the other great loss is the lack of public phones (apart from the old destroyed ones you can still see around Dili).

I don’t beleive its the monopoly that’s the cause of all Timor’s telecommunications woes, its the inability of ARCOM (the Telecommunication s Regulator) to regulate, its ARCOM which sets the prices, not TT, and ARCOM which lets TT rip off the government by not charging for phone numbers (which are a national resources and which are being wated). THe fact that very few people understand telecommunications policy and none actually study it in any of Timor’s universities is a big problem.

By: Charles Scheiner

Charles Scheiner — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 02:04:36 +0000

Friends –
This is an interesting topic, but don’t forget the global nature of the internet. For several years now, the Timor-Leste local NGO La’o Hamutuk (Walking Together) has had information from and about Timor-Leste on its website http://www.laohamutuk.org. Although the website is hosted abroad to get around the cost and bandwidth limitations discussed above, everything on it is written and posted from Dili.
Other local NGOs have websites, including HAK and JSMP, although these two are confronting technical problems which prevent them from being updated as often as they wish. Hopefully this will be resolved soon.
Also, two weekly Timor-Leste newspapers, Tempo Semanal (Jose Belo’s paper) and Kla’ak, are available on the web.
Finally, for much longer than ten years, people in Timor-Leste have used email (via Indonesian Telkom dial-up), sometimes using encryption to bypass Indonesian military intelligence. Many of their materials were globally circulated on email lists and websites, and the Minihub ISP was established in the mid-90s (based in Australia) to provide clandestine email service and web hosting for people engaged in the independence struggle.
As we observe the anniversary of UNDP’s “first internet connection” in 2000, let’s not forget that Timorese campaigners and their supporters, inside and outside the occupied territory, were using the internet long before that, including USENET groups, Gophers and other technology that pre-dated the Internet as we know it today.
See David T. Hill’s 2002 article “East Timor and the Internet: Global Political Leverage in/on Indonesia,” Indonesia (Cornell University), No. 73, April. 2002 for more examples and specifics.

By: Global Voices dalam bahasa Indonesia » Timor Leste: Suai Media Space Tantang Pemisahan Digital

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 20:12:32 +0000

[...] tahun setelah Timor Leste memiliki sambungan Internet untuk pertama kalinya, negeri ini masih mengalami pemisahan digital. Akses fisik untuk teknologi, sumber daya dan [...]

By: Global Voices Online » East Timor: Suai Media Space Challenges the Digital Divide

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 11:42:49 +0000

[...] years after East Timor was connected to the Internet for the first time, the country still faces a deep digital divide. Physical access to technology, resources and tools [...]

By: Soekarno

Soekarno — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 08:28:17 +0000

So Sad to hear that…..:(
btw,what’s tp. domain means? timor-portuguese??(very-very sad)..

By: Sara Moreira

Sara Moreira — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 03:11:44 +0000

Hi Simon!
I should thank you for all your comments, and I think you are absolutely right: there’s so much more to expose!
But we wouldn’t want to overwhelm the readers who didn’t know about this before :)
And let’s hope for more citizen journalists to write about the digital gap in TL so that GVO can keep rising their voices.
All the best!

By: Simon

Simon — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 04:36:11 +0000

Good article but much more expose of TT is required. The telecom monopoly law in fact only gives TT a monopoloy on ‘voice’ traffic, not data. An absurd distinction in this day and age but one which they managed to exploit as a de facto monopoly on ALL traffic.

You are also missing an interview with the one legal competing ISP to TT (who must buy bandwidth from TT) but still manages to resell it a fraction of the cost of getting it direct from TT. Nor do you make reference to their case with the national ombudsman – interesting stuff.

Nor do you refer to the myriad of satellite dishes around the country as people vote with their feet against the arrogance of TT and discreetly buy their own VSAT links.

It is hard to avoid the conclusion that senior TT management are only in the country to make as much money as they can. And that is utterly obscene.

As for the Jose Belo case, much as I am no fan of political use of out-dated defamation laws, this case centres around the revelation of sms messages between a government Minister and potential vendors in a contract. How these messages came to be in the hands of a journalist is very curious. Unless Mr Belo is willing to reveal his sources, staff within TT monitoring voice or data traffic for political purposes cannot be ruled out. A very worrying scenario with ramifications for immediate political stability much more immediate than any digital divide.

By: Breve história da internet em Timor Leste « lusosfera

Breve história da internet em Timor Leste « lusosfera — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 23:15:27 +0000

[...] Breve história da internet em Timor Leste 02Fev09 Editei durante o fim de semana, e hoje traduzi para o português um artigo muito interessante de nossa nova autora para o Timor Leste, Sara Moreira: em português – Timor: 9 anos de internet, só um ISP e um grande abismo digital (o artigo original em inglês está aqui). [...]

By: Raiketak

Raiketak — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 00:57:21 +0000

Also to remind that José Belo, Tempo Semanal publisher and widely respected journalist, is being criminally charged for printing investigations of corruption in Timor.

http://www.watoday.com.au/world/freedom-of-speech-fighter-20090131-7ufu.html

It’s not only the medium that presents a challenge, it’s the message too!

Raiketak