Affordable internet but with fair usage policy

Affordable internet finally available !

With a series of new regulation from Ministry of Communication and Information (Menkominfo), now internet subcription is getting affordable. Compare to my last two (article 1 & article 2) article related to internet rates, currently unlimited internet is available with cheaper monthly fee.

Started of by Indosat with its Broom Prabayar Unlimited, price start from Rp. 100.000 (US$ 9) per month, you can enjoy unlimited internet. Even nothing much to be proud of beside the cheap price, but after launched several months, Indosat is overwhelming with increasing of subscriber, exceed their capasity. As demand increases, it's getting hard to the get the Broom's starter pack.

Then followed by XL with XL internet unlimited prabayar, at approximately same rates, XL plot the service with only 250K subscriber. Not really sure if the quota has been surpased, but same thing happen, no where we can get the starter pack. Telkomsel recently lauched their first unlimited prepaid internet. As they claim have suprerior QoS, monthly fee slightly higher than other competitor.

All these service above carying same one term : Fair Usage Policy. As now limiting access no longer acceptable for subcriber, Fair Usage policy seems to be best fit for current situation. Fair usage policy is limiting connection speed when a sucbriber reach certain quota. Most GSM internet provider lock the speed at 64kbps when quota reach 2-3GB. This is quite tricky because they mostly use term of Broadband 3.5G speed in their promotion, although the maximum speed only at 256kbps.

My personal choice for home internet is Firstmedia. Although some said the customer service isnt nice (in solving problem) but as long as you have no problem with your access, I almost can say its beyond expectation. With Rp. 135.000 (+tax) (US$ 12), speed we can get up to 384kpbs flat no fair usage policy. A real download could reach almost 50KBps from Rapidshare.
So far, I'm quite happy with this service. Hope this can help you decide what the personal internet connection that suits you.

Affordable Internet (for big city only)

After 6 months after my first post about affordable internet plan, no big and remarkable development for Indonesia internet plan for public. At least those hit the market and become headline on non-IT media. But the needs is clear. Public is now more and more aware the internet's purpose.

Actually we're not lack of idea to widening internet access. We have a lot. One of it is RT-RW Net which is originally proposed by local IT expert, Onno W Purbo. You can read his idea or simply visit his minimalist personal site. But all these come to a need for affordable internet backbones. Major ISP now still stick to a not-so-affordable price for home user. Not to mention the limited service area.

First media (previously Cablevision) is the first ISP provide affordable internet plan yet bigger coverage area. Priced at Rp. 99.000, Firstmedia provide unlimited internet bandwidth at 384Kbps through its digital TV cable network. But it cover big city, mostly in Jakarta only.

For small cities, expecting local goverment can be the leader to provide local loop and let local user to build RT-RW net.

Let see what connection we can get next 6 months.