In recent years, great strides have been made in the development of telecommunications infrastructure in Indonesia so that there is now an enticing array of alternative services providing ever-quicker Internet access for consumers in Indonesia. The internet in Indonesia was launched in 1998 and reached 134,000 subscribers. In 2004 that figure had grown to 1.3 million!and In 2010, there were 30 million Internet users in Indonesia, about 13 percent of the population. Broadband use is only about 18 percent of all internet users in Indonesia.
Poll Results from the Expat Forum show that expats are using the following methods to connect to the Internet in Indonesia:
- Dial Up Connection 14.58%
- Premium Dial-Up 2.08%
- Broadband Cable 41.67%
- Satellite-based Internet Access 6.25%
- DSL and ADSL 33.33%
- Wireless (wavelan, laser link and microwave) 20.83%
- Wi-Fi Hot Spots 14.58%
- Other 4.17%
Dial Up Connections
During the early days of the Internet in Indonesia, dial-up connections were the only option for consumers seeking to connect to the Internet. Dial-up services rely on a modem, phone line and ISP subscription to connect users to the Internet. ISPs are Internet Service Providers, who in Indonesia provide email, web hosting and related services. Dial-up connections utilize “narrowband”, phone wires which were originally designed to carry only voice transmissions. While newer modems have a maximum transmission speed of 56 kbps, with the uncertain quality of phone lines in Indonesia the transmission in many areas is still limited to 19,200 kbps or even 9,800 kbps.While there may be many ISPs with licenses to operate in Indonesia, there are only a few big players that offer stable services. Several ISPs are more popular than others due to wider bandwidth, better customer service and better pricing. Several international ISPs also offer services or local access numbers in Indonesia (AOL and AT&T), with US dollar fees.
For current information on the internet (in Indonesia), visit this website www.apjii.or.id
One of the biggest differences between ISPs is their bandwidth management. Most ISPs purchase bandwidth from Indosat, the Indonesian international telecommunications firm. While the cost of connection to the Internet backbone (bandwidth) is paid in US dollars, the subscriber fees for local ISPs are in rupiah. With the historic volatility of the rupiah/dollar exchange rate, the ISPs are usually cautious about buying more bandwidth than they can afford given their subscriber base.
Ideally, as an ISP adds new customers, they should increase their bandwidth accordingly. If you see your connection deteriorating with time, complain to the customer service desk at your ISP or consider moving to another ISP which has better bandwidth management.
With a dial-up connection, you will find it more difficult to connect during high-traffic hours - early morning, lunchtime and late afternoon. You may have to try several of the ISP's access numbers repeatedly until you can find one that you can get through on. Some services, like Indonet, offer reduced rates in the late evening, when traffic is lowest.
Frequent disconnects are another common complaint of dial-up service. If this is occurring with your connection, it may in fact be the fault of your phone line or your modem, not your ISP. Have your modem tested and get the phone company to check your phone line. In some cases, the phone company can also 'boost' transmission speed over your phone line.
As one visitor to the Expat Forum described the situation ... “The problem with dial-ups is not usually the ISP, but the appaling quality of the Telkom phone lines. They are all single pair (as opposed to dual-pair in US or triple pair in UK) copper wire lines, using the same cable for voice, signal, ring tone and electrical power. The line is therefore “dirty” with all kinds of spurious noises which interfere with the ISP server's signals, making it repeat each block many times before your computer can understand it clearly. Most US and UK lines are now fibre-optic, which is like a CD compared with a 78 rpm record.”
Choosing an ISP
Not all ISPs are created equal! When comparing various ISPs to try to determine which to subscribe to - look at the following factors:- Do an informal polling of friends or on the Expat Forum to see which ISP they currently use and recommend. Ask them about problems they have had with ISPs they used in the past. There are lots of threads on the forum regarding this questions, just do a search.
- Ask various ISPs what their bandwidth is and their current ratio of users to bandwidth. Be forewarned, however, that the ISP's bandwidth isn't the only determining factor of speed. Your phone line, the congestion in phone lines in your neighborhood, your computer, your modem, your RAM and numerous other factors must be considered as well. In addition, the number of routers and servers and other mysterious equipment at the ISP can further slow down or speed up the connection. Larger bandwidth doesn't necessarily mean faster connections if the ratio of users to bandwidth is high or the lack of servers/routers create bottlenecks in transmissions.
- Find out if the ISP offers cable, ADSL, satellite or wireless connection as options to dial-up.
- Ask about value packages where you receive one or more email addresses with a set number of hours of usage/connection. ISPs usually offer a basic monthly fee for a set number of hours, with additional fees charged per hour for usage over the hours covered in the package.
- Ask if your ISP has roaming facilities so that you can connect from local numbers in various cities around Indonesia. Also, ask if they have a web-based email server that allows you to access your email account directly from their website. If they do, you can view, answer and send email from anywhere in the world, without having to call your Jakarta access number to get/send your email.
- Call the customer service desk at the ISPs you are considering and see if anyone can speak with you in English (or your foreign language). If you have any problems in the future, you're going to want to be able to communicate with the ISP's customer service staff to work the problem out.
- Ask if your ISP has MultiLink capability. This is the ability (if you have two phone lines) to piggy-back two modems together. Windows Dial-Up Networking has this as standard but it is not supported by all ISPs (they need to allow simultaneous dial-up from the same account). This will effectively give you twice the speed. Not something you will want to use all the time but may be useful for periods of high bandwidth usage.
Your Phone Bill and the Internet
Don't forget that perhaps the largest expense when using traditional dial-up service is the cost of your phone bill. In addition to your Internet access bill from your ISP, the phone company will charge you for time used (pulsa) on the phone lines as well. This appears in your monthly phone bill. Usually your phone bill will be higher than the ISP bill (by 1 1/2), depending on the time of day you connect. Evening connections are cheaper than office hour connections - so surf in the evening, when possible, to reduce your phone bill charges.Premium Dial-Up Services
Several of the ISPs offer premium dial-up services to their customers. What you get for the increased cost (per minute or hour) is more successful dial-ups (less busy signals) and lower rate of users to bandwidth, thus faster access. The cost comparison is around Rp 20,000/month for traditional dial-up as compared to Rp 130,000/month for premium dial-up services. Ask your ISP if they offer this service. (prices 2/2011)Broadband Internet Connections
Simply, broadband Internet connections can be seen as those that don't utilize traditional phone lines with their 'narrow bands' for transmitting data. Broadband services include co-axial or fiber-optic cable, satellite, microwave, and infra-red links access methods. There are more than a dozen ISPs offering some sort of broadband access to their customers in Indonesia.Broadband is most suited for people who utilize their Internet connection at least four to five hours a day or for a group of users. Otherwise the cost may be prohibitive.
More information on service providers, services and tarrifs for Mobile Broadband Providers in Indonesia
Broadband Cable Connections
Several cable companies offer broadband connections to the Internet through co-axial cable with multimedia capabilities. Your connection to the Internet is through a television (or other) cable, instead of a phone line. Broadband cable is capable of carrying multiple channels of rich video, voice and high-speed data, simultaneously. With cable TV connections, you must subscribe to the cable television programming before you can receive the broadband internet connection.The first companies offering this service utilized ATM systems with a cable modem cost of $370 and up. When it became apparent that this system was inadequate for the growing number of ISPs/subscribers, and with the advent of new technology, most of the multimedia cable networks throughout the world switched over to the DOCSIS system (Data Over Cable Service Interface Specifications). This is the worldwide cable modem standard supported by all major equipment manufacturers. When a cable company uses DOCSIS, the customer has the option of more suppliers to purchase/lease the modem from. We bring this historical reference up here in case you're one of the people faced with replacing your old ATM modem - so you know why the cable company is urging you to do it.
While some cable companies claim that their network is capable of transmitting 10 mbps or more, you need to accept these numbers cautiously. Yes, the cable company's cables and fiber optic lines may be capable of transmission at that speed, but once you connect through their system to your ISP, you are limited by your ISP's bandwidth to the Internet. It's not so much the provider, when it's cable; it's how many users and how they use the net that are on your particular segment that matters.
Some Broadband Service providers:
Indonet Broadband (for Kabelvision subscribers)Indosat
First Media FastNet
Advantages of cable internet connection
- Connection is always on - 24 hours a day! No need to dial-up to your ISP, no busy signals from the ISP and no slow transmissions due to poor phone lines/connections and no unexpected disconnects. No expensive phone bill. Be forewarned that 24-hour access doesn't mean that the system doesn't have problems and get shut down for repairs/upgrading occasionally.
- One charge per month for unlimited access - fees don't increase with usage. But, you have the added fee of the cable TV subscription. But it's usually still cheaper than the phone bill!
- Quicker access. While some cable companies set the cable modem configuration up to 256 kbps for personal connections, the ISP is only set for 64 kbps, which is the maximum personal connection offered. While this may not be considered a 'standard cable connection' overseas, you must remember - the standards are still being set in Indonesia as telecommunications infrastructure develops. Another major factor is the expensive international connection rates charged to ISPs.
- The cable can be connected to more than one computer in the house. Someone can be watching TV in one room, while another member of the family is surfing the Internet on a computer, or two (or more) persons can be connected to the Internet simultaneously. Multiple connections within one house/office necessitate additional equipment installation (and costs).
- No need for a second phone line for your modem connection or missing phone calls because your single phone line is being used for the Internet.
- You cable provider may offer a choice of ISPs - some ISPs have better bandwidth than others.
Disadvantages of cable internet connection
- You can only subscribe if the cables are already laid in your neighborhood.
- Must purchase a cable modem to connect your PC to the co-axial cable system, as well as a 10BaseT Network Interface Card (NIC) or USB-to-Ethernet adapter, depending on the installation package.
- If you have connection problems, it is likely that the complaint will be bounced back and forth from the cable company to your ISP's customer service department several times until the problem is worked out.
- As the popularity of cable Internet grows and the cable connection's bandwidth is shared by more and more subscribers, the speed is slowing down to near-dial-up connection speed in some cases. If you live in a complex/area where many watch cable television in the evenings, expect your internet connection to slow to a snail's pace during high viewing hours.
- Monthly costs may be too high for the casual user. An easy way to calculate which is cheaper is by multiplying your monthly dial-up ISP charges by a factor of 1.5 (for the telephone bill). If the combined total is greater than the cost of subscribing to the cable TV and the internet, then it may be cost effective to have a broadband connection.
- Always-on cable connections make it easier for hackers to access your computer. But you can install a firewall or other security software to safeguard your PC.
Cable Connection Costs
Costs differ for personal or corporate subscribers. For corporate subscribers, broadband cable companies offer packages with different bandwidth alternatives, either shared or dedicated. Needless to say, the larger the bandwidth, the higher the cost and the greater the number of users the slower the access speed.How cable connections work
Basically your connection to your ISP from your home/office initially runs through the cable company's co-axial cable network. From the cable company's system the connection to your chosen ISP is via fiber optic cable which is capable of transmitting data at 100 mbps. Once you have accessed your ISP, your connection then utilizes their bandwidth to the Internet. Levels of service and speed differ from ISP to ISP.Most cable companies offer their subscribers several ISPs to choose from. Each ISP has different rates and differing packages of service, some including the cost of the cable modem and some offering the cable modem for lease. Again, ask friends who utilize the cable company which ISP they are using and which has the best reputation and level of service.
Some offices and apartment towers, especially within the Golden Triangle, offer cable broadband connections to their tenants. When choosing lease space, ask the building management about these facilities. Other companies have chosen to open small offices in Serviced Offices to enable them to take advantage of the already existing broadband connection.
Over a dozen ISPs now offer broadband services in Indonesia, contact your ISP to see what they offer.
Satellite-based Internet Access
Marketed primarily to business customers due to its high cost, broadband internet access via satellite is considered to be one of the faster connections available. A recent estimate stated that perhaps 10% of all satellite transponder space in Indonesia will soon be used by ISPs for satellite-based broadband internet access.The hardware needed to connect to the satellite receiver includes a transmitter, usually a small parabola/satellite dish which is used to download data. Depending on the service provider, you may, or may not, still utilize an ISP's bandwidth for uplinks, limiting your speed. Costs vary from USD1,000 to USD5,000 for handheld/portable transmitters.
Some office and apartment buildings in Jakarta offer broadband satellite access to their tenants. They connect your office's PCs through a LAN operated by the building management, who has purchased the necessary transmitter equipment for connection via satellite to the Internet. As with other kinds of access, the speed will depend on the whether your bandwidth is dedicated or shared, and number of users on the bandwidth.
Contact your ISP to see if they offer satellite access, or call PT Telkom, or Inmarsat for further information.
Digital Subscriber Line Connection (DSL and ADSL)
Known as Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) or Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) these lines are a part of Telkom's Multi-Media Access project which offers high-speed/always-on Internet access in parts of the greater Jakarta metropolitan area.High-speed data transfer over regular phone lines is difficult (if not impossible) in Indonesia, because it requires telephone lines of high quality which are fine-tuned for high-speed data transfer and a sophisticated infrastructure. Most existing phone lines do not meet this criteria.
If your residence/office is within five kilometers of a telephone switching office, and if your neighborhood is already covered by ADSL service, you maybe able to get a DSL line installed. Check with PT Telkom (Tel. 147) to see if your location qualifies.
ADSL uses the same copper wires that run from your phone operator's switching office into your house/office. However, the circuits have been fine-tuned so that the same phone line can also transfer digital data at high speed. You can continue to use the same line for phone conversations and fax transmission while your PC is accessing the Internet.
Providers usually offer different classes of ADSL services - and the monthly subscription cost varies depending on the speed, with a one time registration cost. Additional fees per minute may be changed, depending on the level of your traffic.
Unfortunately, just like in dial-up connections, you will be charged for both the phone bill and the Internet access connection. You still need to subscribe to an ISP to use this service. Contact your ISP to find out if they offer ADSL connections services utilizing Telkom's ADSL lines.
Some ADSL providers:
IndoNet
Telekom Speedy
Resources --> http://www.expat.or.id/info/internetaccess.html
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