Insinuated by Netflix boss, Telkom: They are Not Polite

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JAKARTA (IndoTelko) - Your mouth, is your tiger. This proverb seems to have not been recognized by Netflix CEO Reed Hastings.

Instead of looking for ways to work with PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk (Telkom) after blocking its service in Indonesia, Netflix boss is even prolong the problem with the country's fixed broadband market leader.

On the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Pay-TV Operators in Denpasar, Bali recently, Hastings insinuated Telkom for have blocked its services. "In Indonesia, we are not troubled by the government, but with one of the internet service providers (ISPs). The player is somewhat conservative, if others (players) allow customers to enjoy Netflix," Hastings said sarcastically as broadcasted by the CNBC, recently.

Hastings also confidence that the storm with Telkom will soon passed. "We expect the problem to disappear with the passage of time, their consumers, should be the same as consumers around the world, have the freedom to choose a subscription to Netflix," he said.

Hasting stressed that so far only Telkom who blocks Netflix's service throughout the region. However, the action does not affect the performance of its streaming video service in Indonesia.

On the occasion, Hastings affirmed that Netflix streaming service will invest in the program content and will be released in markets around the world simultaneously. Content or program became the target of Netflix to meet the needs of its customers.

"We recently added a lot of content worldwide, we hope to produce content worldwide. It is the future of Netflix, namely local (content) production, global distribution," he said.

Telkom reaction
Telkom's Director of Consumer Service Dian Rachmawan admitted that it is difficult to understand Hasting's statement.

"Why do a CEO of one of the global Over The Top (OTT) company spoke impolitely and arrogant? Making statement in someone else's house (Bali), just to provoke our neighbor. He hasn’t learned from the earlier mistakes," he said to IndoTelko, yesterday.

According to him, Hasting's statement is not accurate because China has also blocked Netflix service. "I would also add more inaccurate facts, in Singapore the number of fixed broadband users is small, and they are cooperating with Starhub and SingTel. In Indonesia, they never introduce themselves, did not introduce. The gesture was already wrong at the beginning. If you want to do business just follow the regulations," he said.

He added that Netflix should not dare to dream to dominate the Southeast Asian market if it does not cooperating with players like Telkom. "We will have three million IndiHome customers with speed up to 100Mbps. OTT video will not enter a country if the internet speed is not fast. I saw HBO, DreamWorks Animation and IFlix who joint-launched the program with us las week that will collaborate with the local content. Netflix just burbling about increasing local content, to attract the more sympathy, we demonstrated to the state's sovereignty for them to learn and understand," he said.

Further, Telkom will consistently add 10 million fiber-optic based Homespassed every year throughout the Indonesian territory, which aims to abolish the digital gap, providing Internet access from anywhere to set up a leading nation to face global competition.

"When other carriers are all crammed in big cities alone, Telkom Indonesia builds its infrastructure in all Indonesian regions," he concluded.

Earlier, Telkom Group blocked Netflix service because they did not meet the regulations in Indonesia. The government also backed Telkom's move, the courage step taken by Telkom leads the Indonesian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (Kemenkominfo) preparing an OTT related regulation. The regulation mentioned the matter of business entity form, the tax issue, sensors, and more. (es)