Floods disrupt phone services

Floods disrupt phone services

Fitri Wulandari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Flooding, caused by torrential rains that have hit Greater
Jakarta for the last five days, has disrupted telcommunications
services for both fixed line and cellphone users.

A total of 17,100 telephone lines in the Greater Jakarta
telecommunications region have suffered disruption.

"The disruption was caused by the flooding that has inundated
several service centers and central switching facilities in the
areas of Jakarta, Bekasi, Tangerang and Purwakarta," said public
relations manager of state telecommunications company PT Telkom
Thomik Armawan, as quoted by Antara on Thursday.

The worst-affected areas were in East and South Jakarta, where
6,000 lines in Gandaria, Tebet and Penggilingan suffered
problems. The West Jakarta areas of Cengkareng, Kedoya, Palmerah
and Slipi suffered the second-highest number of disruptions, with
4,000 lines affected.

Flooding in Pasar Kemis, Cipondoh and Tangerang caused
disruption to 3,000 phone lines in the Tangerang area.
Floodwaters 2.5 meters deep in the Ciledug area of South Jakarta
disabled 1,900 lines, while 500 lines in the Pekayon housing area
and Permata Regency Cibitung estate, both in Bekasi, suffered
disruption.

In Bogor, 1,700 lines were disrupted due to falling trees,
which brought down telephone cables.

Thomik said that in anticipation of worsening floods, Telkom
would be on alert for the next 24 hours to optimize its central
switching facility and to supervise the distribution points in
flood-prone areas throughout the region.

Telkom has 2,485,151 private lines and 147,370 public lines in
Greater Jakarta, according to recent figures.

Cellular providers were not spared the impact of the flooding.

Telkomsel, the country's largest cellular provider, said that
flooding had disabled 55 of its 606 Base Transceiver Stations
(BTSs). A BTS is used to connect one cellphone to another.

The BTSs were either inundated by floodwaters or located in
areas where the electricity was switched off by state electricity
company (PLN) for safety reasons.

Consequently, subscribers in areas such as Tanah Baru Bogor,
Bogor Lakeside, Jatibening-Bekasi, Pulau Gebang, Meruya,
Jelambar, Taman Ria Senayan, the vicinity of Hotel Shangri-La in
South Jakarta and Cipinang could not make calls.

"We apologize for the disruption. We will try to normalize the
BTSs as soon as possible," R. Hermanses, Telkomsel's general
manager for Greater Jakarta said.

Hermanses said that some BTSs would return to normal as soon
as PLN turned on the power. Telkomsel has 1.2 million subscribers
in Jakarta.

"We have sent technicians to repair damage and power
generators for BTSs," Hermanses said, without elaborating when
the service might return to normal.

While not sustaining such damage, PT Excelcomindo said that
flooding had slightly disrupted its services.

M. Danny Buldansyah, Excelcomindo's general manager for
engineering said that the service was only disrupted in flooded
areas where PLN had to turn off the electricity.

"But most of our BTSs have been equipped with generators ...
so it's not too much of a problem," Danny told The Jakarta Post.
Excelcomindo has 400 BTSs to serve its 700,000 subscribers in
Jakarta.

Flooding has also caused a traffic overload, as people stuck
in traffic jams or affected areas were relying on cellphones.

"The traffic was 20 percent higher than normal. That's why
some customers complained that they couldn't make a call," Danny
said, adding that the service had returned to normal on Thursday.

Telkomsel also had a similar experience. "In many areas BTSs
are normal but people cannot make calls because of traffic
overload," Hermanses said.