Telkom Speedy

Telkom Speedy now has a program that lets you have free downloads from 20.00 through to 08.00. The only real condition / restriction is that you sign in after 20.00 and sign out before 08.00. I might take advantage of this as I have been over quota for downloading the past three months. Even though it is likely to adversely effect my sleeping patterns!

It is about time Telkom did something smart. The Missus (aka my better half) has been thinking of changing to First Media, as this would allow us to combine our current cable subscription with Internet access.

Telkom's decision might just stave of this change for a little while.

SMS -- Price Fixing

The Indonesian Commission for the Supervision of Business Competition (KPPU) has issued a decision that finds six mobile operators have engaged in a scheme that has resulted in price fixing for the provision of SMS services. The collusion between the operators has seen some IDR 2.8 trillion or the equivalent of USD 302 million being skewered from unsuspecting mobile and SMS users.

The six operators are Excelcomindo Pratama (XL), PT Telekomunikasi Seluler (Telkomsel), PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom), Bakrie Telecom, Mobile-8 Telecom and Smart Telecom. I am an XL customer so perhaps I should be more annoyed than I am about this. I knew I was being speared in terms of how much I was paying but paid it anyway.

The KPPU ordered Telkomsel and XL to pay fines of IDR 25 billion each. The KPPU also ordered Telkom, Mobile-8 and Bakrie have to pay IDR 18 billion, IDR 5 billion, and IDR 4 billion, respectively. I guess the lower fines are representative of the size of the role they played in the price fixing scheme.

The fun part here is that the KPPU does not only issue decisions but considers itself to be the arbiter of what the proper costing of an SMS should be. By the KPPU's reckoning the cost of an a 160 character SMS should not be higher than IDR 114. I am not sure that the KPPU has the internal expertise to make these kinds of calculations nor am I sure that its role should be to stipulate the fees that can be charged in a free market.

I have no problem with the KPPU adjudicating whether or not there has been a breach of the law. The market will take care of what prices it can and cannot sustain for SMS messages.

I am looking forward to cheaper SMS messages though!

Blogspot, Telkom, and the Indonesian Government

To be honest I am a little bored of having to use a proxy server as often, if not more often, as being able to directly access my blog through my ISP, Telkom Speedy. As some of my colleagues say, it would be nice to think that this was just a simple case of incompetence and overall bad service! However, there is only so much that one can tolerate before looking for better service, more consistent service, and value for money!

I did not start blogging for any real serious reasons but rather just for fun and to amuse myself! It seems that I have invariably started to amuse, annoy, or offend others into the bargain, which I find amusing in itself that anybody bothers to read the combination of silliness and seriousness that I put into cyber space from this locale. But, thanks though for continuing to stop by and comment.

Now, because I do have a small and dedicated readership (you know who you are), I am going to become a little more serious about the whole thing! I have registered a domain name, therabexperience.com, which is not up and running yet (I only registered like 10 minutes ago)! However, I will continue to post here in blogspot.com while access is available :D

More updates to follow when I have something to update of course!