Net1 Indonesia is quick responding towards the earthquake in Lombok Island, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) by providing Free WiFi access for refugees in evacuation area. To implement the social action, Net1 Indonesia collaborates with Communications and Informatics Office (Kominfo) of Province West Nusa Tenggara. Net1 has donated 100 WiFi devices to the office to be distributed and installed in several evacuation areas.
This caring action is part of Net1 Indonesia’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to relieve the burden of victims affected by the Lombok earthquake, which killed 113 people, injured 236 people and thousands others homeless caused of severe damage. Until Tuesday (8/8), aftershocks still occurred after the earthquake with a magnitude of 7 hit Lombok Island, West Nusa Tenggara, on Sunday (5/8).
“We received information from our area team in West Nusa Tenggara that telecommunication access was down, while many people were still looking for their family members. Telecommunications access will facilitate people and their families to communicate and update each other on their conditions,” said Larry Ridwan, CEO of Net1 Indonesia.
With the support of telecommunication access and internet from Net1, shelters around the disaster area can be an information hub to update informations related to the disaster, including the possibility to find people who separated from their family. The WiFi devices installation in the shelters is possible to be extended based on situation and condition in the natural disaster area.
“We will distribute the one hundred devices to 48 sub-districts in Mataram City, and in the districts including North Lombok, Central Lombok, West Lombok and East Lombok. So far, the worst damage occurs in North Lombok with 78 death toll. We are excited since Net1 is very quick responding to fulfill the need of telecommunication and internet access. Telecommunication access in Lombok and its surrounding was down when people urgently need to contact and update their conditions to family and relatives,” revealed Tri Budiprayitno, Head of Kominfo Office in West Nusa Tenggara Province.
“We hope this disaster will pass soon, so people can recover and resume to their activities,” Larry added.
Because of the magnitude of the earthquake, a number of telecommunication infrastructure in Lombok damaged, but the damage did not affect the network and range of Net1 Indonesia 4G LTE. Net1 Indonesia’s networks and signals are normally operating at 450MHz frequency to provide adequate telecommunications access for its customers and victims.
Net1 Indonesia also encourages Sentra Net1 which spreaded across Bali and Lombok Island to play an active role in providing technical repair if there are customers’ devices damaged because of earthquake. Please visit net1.co.id for more information.