BELLAMYBUDIMAN

Telkomsel proved to the Indonesian market today that they are probably the greatest irony that ever happened in the country. Here are the facts on why I came to this conclusion:

• Telkomsel is the largest cellular provider in this country, and with the widest coverage.
• Telkomsel is Apple’s exclusive partner that sells bundled iPhones in this country.
• As far as I know, the iPad 3G is the only device available right now (including here, despite it’s not officially imported) that uses a micro SIM.

So given those facts, Telkomsel should be able to steal the competition by supplying micro SIMs for Indonesian iPad 3G owners, right? No. We have to cut them ourselves instead, AND, instead of them, XL is pioneering the move. Ironic? Yes. But then again, Telkomsel’s 3G coverage (or stability) is not entirely that spectacular anyway.

Now, let’s see how long would it take for them to bring the iPhone 4 here, and how long would it take for them to sell them appropriately or competitively. But the way I see it, Apple should’ve ditched the partnership from the beginning and sell factory-unlocked iPhones through Indonesian authorized resellers instead. I’m pretty sure that this would work better in terms of sales.

So maybe, by the time the iPhone 4 is here, and we ask Telkomsel on whether we can get an official micro SIM card or not, this is the reply that you would probably get: “Mohon informasikan nomor telepon dan lokasi, tim kami yang akan menindaklanjuti.”

Sorry, just had to let that out :)

“Why?”

That is probably the first question in hand, because in people’s eyes, having a postpaid cellular card could lead to unwanted bills, it’s inability to be limited, and so forth, and so forth. And using a prepaid number is cheaper and easier to the wallet. Well to a certain extent, that’s probably true, but I have good reasons why I chose to stick with a postpaid number.

Reason #1: Convenience
The first and foremost reason for me is convenience. No matter what you do (unless you limit your credits, certain telcos have this feature), you will still have the ability to make a phone call when you need to. Imagine having a low credit on a prepaid phone and you’re stuck in an emergency. Believe me, you don’t want to be caught in that situation. With postpaid numbers, I can also register that to my credit card for auto billing each month. It saves my time and I don’t have to worry that I forgot to pay my bills anymore.

Reason #2: It’s Actually Cheaper
Unless things have changed I didn’t realize, I found using a postpaid number to be a lot cheaper. Back in the days when I was still using a prepaid number, I usually shell out around 200-250k each month for my phone bill. After I switched to postpaid, it’s around 150k. Now, my bill is around 250-275k already with an internet subscription that costs 125k alone. One other thing that I find interesting is how you calculate your rates. Here’s an example of a postpaid rate:

And here’s an example of a prepaid rate:

It’s clear that postpaid numbers have much simpler rate calculations. Personally, I don’t want to waste my time on constantly calculating the best rate for my phone calls. It’s just dreadful, and not to mention unnecessary. Why do we have to have different rates at different times, and at different regions? It’s just simply pointless.

Reason #3: No Fear of Deactivation
While you can also be deactivated by your service provider when using a postpaid number, you don’t have to hassle with different active periods when using different top up vouchers with different nominals. Add that to the rate calculation you already have before, and you’ll have a lifetime’s worth of mathematical problems.

So if your concern is to save money, it’s not the case of whether you should choose prepaid numbers over postpaid numbers. It is a control that you have to achieve for yourself. It’s as simple as making phone calls, texting, or browsing as you need.

Note:
Rates were taken from Indosat. I found other telcos use methods that are more or less the same.

I’m going to try to keep this explanation as easy as possible. I run a design company which is technically a service provider. By running a company like this, I value my clients highly and we try at the very best to respond to their needs as soon as possible, as good as possible, as reliable as possible, and the list goes on. All of this to keep the integrity of their trust to our company. Why? Because trust is hard to gain, and they paid for something that they expect to be so fucking damn good. We make that our priority.

The case of most Indonesian service providers is that they sell crappy services with a hefty price tag and somewhat idiotic knowledge of their own product or how it functions. The ISP we’re subscribed to often lied just to cover up their connection problems (the problem seems to always be on our side, not theirs), the telco I subscribed to is a pain in the ass who can’t even sell smartphones and usage plans the way they should, one of the banks I use proclaimed themselves stupid enough that they can’t count how many characters are there in a single email address, one of the insurance companies we subscribed to is constantly trying to find a way to not pay for our iMac’s service fee, thus negating the function of the insurance plan we bought from them. Ironically (except for the bank and the insurance), these dumbass providers are still one of the best in town.

Here’s one example. We paid almost 600k a month for our 1.5Mbps internet connection. Compared to broadband plans in the US which cost roughly $30 a month for a 10Mbps speed, yes, our connection is a fraction of the speed with twice the price tag. Therefore, since we paid for an expensive connection, I expect them to give us a fucking good service. Now when they miraculously provided me with an unexpected downtime, I expect them to give me one good reason why there was a downtime, why it’s down, why the hell it wasn’t scheduled, and if it were in maintenance, why the hell it wasn’t done at dawn when people was sleeping.

Here’s a tip for you dumbass providers, if you want me to treat you as goddamned idiots, by all means I would. And second, you never mess around or lie to someone who has more technical knowledge than you do, and if you ever do, I will bring the storms of hell upon you. I called to ask you what the problem is and not for you to fucking lie to me with a bogus and stupid reason.