Indonesia has only about 1.3 lines perhundred people, so universal telephone service cannot bepractically achieved in the near future. Nevertheless,public access to telephone and other telecommunicationsservices can be dramatically improved through pay phones andtelecom shops. The telecom shops are retail outlets thatprovide telecom services to "non-subscribers,"often under a franchise from the local telephone company.These shops have turned out to be effective at meeting thestrong demand among the majority of Indonesians who lackprivate residential or business telephone service, and theirsuccess provides a model that other countries can apply. Theimportant message from the Indonesian experience is that thedemand for service from nonsubscribers in developingcountries is significant, commercially viable, and should bemet. The rapid growth in the number of telecom shops inIndonesia attests to their increasingly effective role inproviding public access to telecommunications services. Astechnology advances and the cost of telecommunicationsequipment declines, the next commercial development could bethe establishment of community "micro" telephonecompanies. Using a small PBX (an automatic switchboard), atelecom shop could cost-effectively service one hundredextensions on twenty main lines and, using the newgeneration of digital cordless telephone sets, the telecomshop could extend its services while still providingconventional telecommunications shop services.
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