Mobile Telephone Services
According to the Office of Made-Up Statistics, there are squillions of people in Indonesia, and all of them seem to have a mobile phone (referred to locally as a ‘handphone’ or simply HP – pronounced ‘haw pay') so you would expect that the mobile phone services would be shoddy and prone to system collapses. This, however, is not the case. Indonesia has a fairly strong telecommunications structure for mobile phones.
This could be because of the amount of usage they get locally, which, in turn, creates massive revenues. As a result, the companies with vested interests sitting atop vast mountains of money have extra motivation to keep milking the cash cow. So in major cities at least, it is rare not to be able to get a signal.
It is worth noting that two network types operate nationally, CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) and GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications). Each offers its own advantages like cheaper SMS rates on several CDMA providers, or faster data access on a GSM-powered phones. This means that in many cases ownership of two mobile phones, or a dual-network-enabled phone, has become de rigueur in Indonesia and is not so much a sign of affluence as it is a means of ‘working’ the system. Clever users will utilize whichever mobile phone provides them with the smallest charge per service. Esia, a coverage provider, recently announced that it would charge users by the character per text message (or SMS) and promptly received a stampede of new customers who were presumably not the talkative types (A: mal?; B: ok). Esia, on the other hand, is also responsible for some quite intrusive unsolicited advertising calls and SMSs.
Subscription plans are available, but most users exploit the prepayment scheme known as buying ‘pulsa’ (credit). Although frustrating when credit runs out, ‘pulsa’ vendors are omnipresent and only apply a small extra charge (usually about 10 US cents).
The reception quality varies from phone to phone and from provider to provider and this is especially marked when outside major metropolitan areas. CDMA phones aren’t as strong in coverage as their GSM cousins, but this is reflected in their cheaper cost. With some CDMA phones, the handset is gratis and you are given some ridiculously fantastic amount of free text messages as an incentive to buy into the package.
The only times that Indonesia’s populace really impinges upon service quality are during Idul Fitri (the holiday marking the end of Ramadan) - when nearly everybody is phoning and SMSing each other to ask for forgiveness for a year’s worth of transgressions - and as the clock strikes 12 on New Year’s Eve. At these times, the system usually backs up for a few hours under the weight of goodwill being sent. Of course, as with every other network-based communication tool, the phone network will experience glitches, but this is true of developed countries as much as Indonesia.
The most salient point for most foreign residents of the country will likely be the cost of phoning back to one’s home country. Again this varies from provider to provider, but there are other means of getting in touch with home, such as Skype, land lines (either from one’s residence or at a local ‘wartel’ [calling shops]), calling cards and e-mail. When buying a new mobile phone or SIM card, it is worth checking with the service providers beforehand about the costs, and if there are any peak or non-peak periods for overseas calls.
Now, back to my SMS … “Dear Mum, sorry I haven’t been in touch lately. It’s not me, it’s the network ...."
Contributor: Mark Moloney
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