Cheap Mobile Tariff in Indonesia

For you guys who live in Indonesia especially Jakarta and Java Island, which mobile service providers do you choose? Nowadays, It seems that average people use more than 1 provider, not for luxury but to save some money, due to expensive mobile service charges, especially at this time when the petrol price goes high up. It also depends on the activities you have using those services. I use mobile services (I prefer prepaid service than the postpaid one due to nature of mobile service "business" here so that I can change to other operator if it fails to keep the same service level) so that it will be easier for someone or clients to contact me. It is also convenient to bring along cell phones with you in case you need to contact someone or your clients in the middle of nowhere :-) I do not use it for long-range dating or surfing the Internet. I use it for voice telecommunication, frequently to different operators.

UPDATED! Mentari is not cheap anymore...

Tujuan		Tarif (Rupiah)
		23.00 - 04.59	05.00 - 16.59	17.00 - 22.59
Panggilan
Lokal	Semua Operator	5/detik	10/detik	20/detik
SLJJ	Semua Operator	5/detik	20/detik
SMS
Semua Operator		99
Int'l		500

I have been testing the service of different kinds of providers. In the first years of testing, there were not many choices. I had swung from one provider to the others till I fixed to one provider, Indosat Mentari prepaid GSM. It becomes better now due to the lowest cost (I guess for the time being - policies are frequently changed - promo time only?) to call any other operators, anywhere in Indonesia. It only charges you Rp 5 each time unit in second so that the cost is Rp 300 a minute. The other strong side: the quality of the signal is good wherever you use it around Indonesia. But the weak side is that you can only use this scheme from 23:00 till 17:00 for local calls and from 23:00 till 11:00 for long-distance calls. NEW! The rule has been changed recently :-) the cheap rate for long-distance calls are valid only from 23:00 till 05:00 which is practically useless for me because I or the one who will be called, cannot be awake till very late at night just to use that cheap call anyway. Rule changing is part of the marketing gimmick of many similar mobile service provider here...

To cover this weakness, you may add another new provider: "3" Three from Hutchison. "3" charges the second lowest cost for calling any other operators anytime, ie: Rp 399 each time unit in minute. At the beginning, the scheme is valid for either local or long-distance call but recently I notice that it is only valid for local calls as described in "3" website. NEW! The rule has been changed for long-distance call. They charge Rp 1000 each time unit in minute. One apparent weakness of this operator is the coverage of their service. There are blank spots inside shopping malls and at some areas. For the time being, their service can only be enjoyed in Java and Bali.

How about CDMA - fixed wireless providers? For me, the term "fixed wireless" is an oxymoron. Basically there is no much different in technology usage in both CDMA and GSM, ie: for telecommunication in voice or data. I guess the price policies make this happened. Or other politics? :-) At this time, Telkom Flexi Trendy prepaid CDMA is my choice due to its lower rates for calling locally to fixed phones, ie: Rp 250 each time unit in minute. Unfortunately the quality of the signal is not good at my place and there are many dropped calls during conversation if the handset is moved inside a building. You may consider to swing to Esia prepaid CDMA because the rate for local calls to fixed phone (PSTN - Public Service Telephone Network) is the same as Flexi Trendy. I heard from my friend that their wifone local call charge is cheaper than Telkom but you may not want to use it because wifone is not as convenient as common cell phone handsets. You may use it at home / office as substitute for fixed phone line from Telkom. I never heard whether the wifone can be used for fax though. NEW! But according to my experience, it is sometimes hard to contact an Esia phone number from other operators. Also it seems that the charging time unit is faster than normal so that I feel that my deposit value drains quickly compared to Flexi if you call a fixed phone...

For me, I will not use some providers because I have tested them 2 or 3 times and their scheme keeps on changing weirdly which may misguide you if you do not study their terms carefully. I do not know why they keep on doing that, because I think their policies may drive the old and new customers away. The other bad weakness is that their call center doesn't handle the complaints properly.

NEW! There is a good news about a new fixed wireless product, ie: "hepi" which is owned by Mobile 8. This operator also runs a CDMA mobile service "Fren" that has the same tariff scheme as the GSM operators have. I cannot find the tariff scheme for "hepi" yet from their website but the advertising says that the charge for calling to fixed phone is only Rp 200 which is cheaper than Flexi or Esia. I guess the tariff may be altered later according to the company's policy as usual :-)

There is also another CDMA operator running a similar scheme to "Fren" which can be considered as having "cheap" tariff with simple scheme because it doesn't differentiate between local and non-local call. Below you can see this "Smart" Telecom tariff:

That's it for now. Any comments, please welcome...