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.