For Cheaper Internet, Stop Telkom Monopoly

A comment worth posting

I have to be thankful first of all to all readers who beside spare their busy time reading this blog also drop a comment every now and then. Some of the comments are really insightful that I decide to put them as a separate posting not only as appreciation to what they’re doing (putting comment here) but also to give them a more exposure for everyone concerned to know. A good comment with at least a two paragraph length and written in English are worth a posting.

Here is the first quality comment from Andre, an Indonesian who’s apparently in the US right now. He commented on my piece here, despite he’s apparently commented on another.

“Actually, it’s not the lack of Indonesian News Feeds (or Indonesian content providers) that bothers me most, but the fact that most of Indonesians Internet-literate still tied to slow-ineffective-dial-up connection does concern me. And this is not to mention how small the number of Internet users in Indonesia is (according to the Internet World Stats website, it is less than 10% out of 220 million people).

Looking at the fact that Internet is still considered as an expensive vehicles to the ocean of information, I am not surprised to know that Indonesians limit their Internet experience compared to their counterparts in neighbouring countries, such as Malaysia and Singapore.

With limited access to the Internet, it’s no surprise as well to know that Indonesian content providers (and in our context, media industry) are not staying abreast with the latest development in Internet technology. Why do they have to devote lots of efforts to catter a small amount of readers when most of customers read their traditional newspaper?

I was one of typical dial-up user before moved to the U.S. As a college student, my budget for the Internet was so limitied; hence going to broadband option was abolutely out of question. Hence, if the situation forced me to go online from home using Telkomnet Instant, I disconnected it as soon as I got what I wanted. And like most other Internet users, I went online most of the time from school (or offices for others) which was notorious for its super slow connection during daytime. And I think it’s worthless mentioning now how my Internet experience is after residing in the U.S.

In my opinion, the government should realize that providing low-rate high-speed internet is a necessity to help form an established civic society. If wiping out Telkom’s monopoly in providing access to the Internet will do the trick, go ahead and do it. With current pricing system imposed by PT Telkom where unlimited broadband internet access costs home users millions of rupiah per month, or even several hundreds of thousands of rupiah for only 750MB access every month, it is understandable why most people turn to dial-up connection or even discouraging them at all from getting internet access at home. So, our leader, please do something. This nation needs affordable high-speed internet access…”

(just a voice from one corner of the world)
Andre