Telephone Booth

This bright red telephone booth in front of a store on Jalan Sulanjana is very eye-cathing. It looks somewhat like a British phone booth, a kitsch of it. Our ordinary telephone booths don't like this, of course. It has probably been placed there to attract customers to the store.

Like in many other countries, phone booths have become a rarity here since the boom of cellular phones. With more than 180 million cell phone subscribers (that's about 80 percent of Indonesian population) according to 2010 statistics, most people here now have and use cell phones more than they do fixed phones. Hence, most phone booths or pay phones have now become obsolete.

Skywatch Friday: Television and CB Antenna

Outdoor television antennas used to be a ubiquitous object in the urban skies (I guess they still do in many parts of the world). Slowly but surely, however, they have been or are being replaced by satellite dish or parabolic antennas and less conspicuous indoor antennas and cable television receivers which are technologically more reliable in capturing television broadcasts. (I think many of us would still remember how the weather condition would affect the quality of the pictures and sound received on our television sets and how winds could change the direction of our outdoor antennas and produced the "ants effect" on our television.)

Can you see what looks like a three-tiered object on top of the TV antenna? That's a CB (Citizen Band) radio antenna.

Just a few years ago, before the advent of mobile telephones/cellular phones and the internet, CB radio was also very popular and a very cool thing to have. I still remember spending hours in a friend's house just so that I could communicate and flirt with some strangers over the CB radio wave. (Now we can all do that on our desktop or laptop with the internet, which offers not only voice chat but also video calls and conference.) To think of it, it's amazing how fast telecommunication technology has developed and how wonderful it is. (I must admit, however, that I sometimes still miss the good old days ... ^_^).

This post is Bandung Daily Photo's participation in this week's Skywatch Friday meme. To see other photos of the sky or sky-related objects from around the world, please follow the links.

BTS - Base Transciever Station

With the booming of wireless or cellular telecommunication, this kind of tower called BTS (Base Transciever Station) becomes an everyday sight almost everywhere here now. For the sake of area coverage, they have sprung and been erected in nearly every strategic location you can think of: high-rise buildings, hills, etc., some of them even by disregarding their aesthetic effect on the overall landscape.

BTS basically connects the end-user telecommunication devices, such as the cell or mobile phone, with the network(s) that provides the service.

Mobile communication industry and services are among the fastest growing and most lucrative businesses in Indonesia. As of 2008 more than 50 percent of Indonesia's approximately 240 million people have used or had access to mobile or wireless telecommunication services. This penetration rate is predicted to grow exponentially and reach 80 percent by 2012.

Multiple Information and Telecommunication Technology Shop

Text and picture by Eki Qushay Akhwan

Access to information and telecommunication technology, such as computer, the internet, facsimile, etc., is a necessity today. However, many people, especially those from the lower income strata, still can't afford to have such technology at home. This doesn't necessarily mean that they don't have access to it though. Internet cafes (here called WARNET - the abbreviation for Warung Internet or Internet Kiosk), WARTEL (Warung Telekomunikasi or telecommunication kiosk), photocopy kiosks, etc. are available nearly in every strategic location throughout the city of Bandung and even in its surrounding countrysides where telephone lines and/or wireless mobile telephone signal are available.

The kiosk in the above photo is particularly interesting because it does not only provide internet or telephone services, but both plus a variety of other information and telecommunication technology services. As you can see from the writings on the window, it offers computer rent, data backup services, document typing and editing, photo scanning and editing, laminating, printing and photocopy services, prepaid cellular phone vouchers, and even multy players games. All in one small and unassuming shop!

I took the above shapshot photo at Cimahi, a town about 14 kilometers west of Bandung's city center.