Mobile Telephone Services

Mobile coverage in Indonesia is good and improving. 4G reaches roughly 97% of the population. 5G exists but is confined to a few dozen cities and tourist centres at the time of writing. In the cities you will rarely lose signal; in remote rural and forest areas you still may, so ask neighbours and colleagues which network works best where you live before committing. A mobile phone is universally called a "hand phone", abbreviated HP (pronounced hah-pay).

Three operators now cover the country: Telkomsel, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison and XLSmart. The old GSM-versus-CDMA jumble is gone. The CDMA networks (Flexi, Esia, StarOne and the rest) shut down years ago, and a decade of mergers folded Axis, Tri and Smartfren into those three names. All run GSM and 4G, with 5G layered on top in the larger cities.

Registering a SIM card

Buying a SIM is no longer the anonymous Rp2,000 street purchase of years past. Registration is now mandatory and tied to your identity. Since 1 July 2026, every new prepaid number requires biometric facial-recognition registration, and each person is capped at three prepaid numbers per operator. Cards are sold inactive and only work once registration is verified.

Foreign nationals register with a passport plus a valid residence permit (KITAS or KITAP); short-term visitors can register on a passport alone. You cannot self-register online the way Indonesian citizens can, so buy from an official outlet, an airport counter or a Telkomsel, Indosat or XLSmart store, where staff complete the registration for you. Unbranded kiosks will sell you a card but often cannot register a foreigner, leaving it dead. A starter SIM costs around Rp35,000.

If you bring a phone bought abroad and stay under 90 days, a tourist SIM works automatically and nothing further is needed. For longer stays you must register the handset's IMEI (dial *#06# to see it) with customs (Bea Cukai) within 60 days of arrival, or it will be blocked from local networks. Doing this at the airport on arrival keeps the duty-free allowance on devices worth under about USD500; pricier phones attract import tax. Check a device's status at imei.kemenperin.go.id.

Pulsa, data and eSIM

Two payment models exist: pascabayar (postpaid monthly plans) and prabayar (prepaid), the latter far more common. Prepaid credit is called pulsa. Top it up through the operator's app, at minimarkets such as Indomaret and Alfamart, or via ATM and e-banking. Data is cheap by international standards: a 30-day package runs from around Rp35,000 for a few gigabytes to Rp200,000 and up for very large quotas.

eSIM is now mainstream. All three operators support it, and international travel-eSIM services such as Airalo and Holafly run on their networks, letting you activate a plan before you arrive.

Phoning home

Skype, wartel calling shops and international calling cards are finished. Foreign residents call home over mobile data instead. WhatsApp is overwhelmingly dominant in Indonesia for messaging and for free app-to-app voice and video calls, with Telegram, Zoom, Google Meet and FaceTime filling the gaps. To reach an ordinary overseas landline or mobile number, a pay-as-you-go internet-calling (VoIP) app does the job cheaply over the same data connection.

Spam and scams

Cheap, anonymous numbers long made Indonesia a paradise for SMS spam and fraud, and the tighter registration regime is meant partly to curb it. Ignore and delete the classic "mama minta pulsa" con, a text claiming to be from a relative asking you to transfer credit to a new number. Treat any unexpected request for money or credit as a scam.

Indonesian mobile phone network operators

Telkomsel is the market leader with the widest coverage, majority-owned by state-controlled Telkom, with Singapore's Singtel as minority partner. Its prepaid brands are Telkomsel and by.U; Halo is the postpaid line.

Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison (IOH) is the 2022 merger of Indosat and Tri (3), backed by Qatar's Ooredoo and Hong Kong's CK Hutchison. Its consumer brands are IM3 and Tri.

XLSmart is the April 2025 merger of XL Axiata and Smartfren, owned by Axiata and Sinar Mas Group. It keeps the XL, Axis and Smartfren brands.

Contributor: marmalade

Have comments or corrections? Please email editor [at] livinginindonesia.info.