Telkomsel Already Lower Its Tariffs in Eastern Indonesia

Ilustrasi (dok)

JAKARTA (IndoTelko) - Minister of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) Rudiantara admitted that he had received a report from Telkomsel related to internet tariff reduction in eastern Indonesia.

"I've received report from Telkomsel related to the public demand in Eastern Indonesia to lower operators tariffs in the region. Per 13 Septemeber 2015, Telkomsel said that it had lowered its data package. Please check to Telkomsel, whether its true or not," said Rudiantara, yesterday.  

The minister said that Telkomsel has been providing a disparity data rate between the western and eastern part of Indonesia that almost doubled the price, but it has been lowered up to 60 percent now.

"Before, the difference is 1: 2, ie Rp1 in the western region but in the eastern will be Rp 2. Well, the current data package price has been reduced now," he said.

Admittedly, the reduction is not drastic because the cost of organizing internet structure in eastern Indonesia is more expensive than the west because of its geographical conditions and backbone availability. "If the Palapa Ring project is done in 2018, the east and west 2018 might have equivalent data rates," he said.

Previously, the regulator asks Telkomsel to cut internet tariffs disparity between the western and eastern part of Indonesia in order to provide a sense of justice for consumers.

The upsrising of Telkomsel rate disparirty has triggered a number of people to release an online petition named "Internet For People: Save @Telkomsel @KemenBUMN @kemkominfo"

The petition has been signed by thousands of supporters that declared the 12 regions tariff zones concept for data packets from Telkomsel has raised price difference between zone 1 and zone 12 up to 100%.  

For example, 2GB of data packets in zone 1 only Rp65 thousand while in zone 12 the price is Rp120 thousand. Zone 12 is the eastern part of Indonesia in the operational area of Telkomsel. (es)