Currently, Director General of Village Governance Administration of the Home Affairs Ministry is helping us to verify the data directly in each village. We are waiting for the results, and God willing, it (the verification process) will be completed
Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Communication and Informatics Ministry was helped by the Home Affairs Ministry to verify data of set-top box (STB) assistance recipients ahead of the implementation of multiple analog switch off (ASO) throughout Indonesia.

Acting Director General of Post and Information Technology at the Communication and Informatics Ministry, Ismail, stated here on Tuesday evening that initially, data on the assistance recipients was obtained from the Social Affairs Ministry.

“Currently, Director General of Village Governance Administration of the Home Affairs Ministry is helping us to verify the data directly in each village. We are waiting for the results, and God willing, it (the verification process) will be completed in the near future," he remarked.

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The ASO is a national program to migrate analog television broadcasts to digital ones that had started to be implemented since April 30, 2022, and is targeted to be completed on November 2, 2022.

So far, the program has been implemented in eight regions across Indonesia, comprising Dumai City, Bengkalis District, and Meranti Islands District in Riau Province; North Timor Tengah District, Belu District, and Malaka District in East Nusa Tenggara Province; as well as Sorong City and Sorong District in West Papua Province.

At the inaugural implementation of the ASO program in the eight regions, the Communication and Informatics Ministry provided the assistance of 87 thousand STB devices.

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The devices were handed out to underprivileged people facing difficulties in procuring digital TV.

Some 6.7 million of the devices should be distributed in order to meet the demand of STB among the underprivileged people throughout Indonesia. However, there is a shortage of 1.5 million STB devices to fulfil the needs.

Hence, in addition to verifying the data of the beneficiaries, the ministry is attempting to propose for the provision of additional STB assistance to be included in the state’s expenditure budget list.

"We are proposing it to the Finance Ministry," Ismail added.


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Translator: Livia Kristianti, Uyu Liman
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
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