Internet cafes gripe about poor phone service

Internet cafes gripe about poor phone service

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Internet cafe operators are complaining about the poor
telephone service provided by state-owned telecommunications firm
PT Telkom Tbk, despite the increases in phone charges in February
which dealt another blow to the already-battered sector.

"We find it difficult to run our business profitably given the
recent phone charge hike, especially as the existing service
remains poor," said Valentino, the owner of the Anyelir Internet
cafe on Jl. Salemba Tengah in Central Jakarta.

Valentino attributed the poor service to limited bandwidth
capacity, which prevented expansion so as to offset the phone
charge increase.

"If we add new computers to increase our profit margins, it
will backfire on us as the Internet connection speed will be much
slower and encourage the customers to look elsewhere for better
service," Valentino explained.

Anyelir Internet cafe, he said, was one of eight Internet
cafes in the Salemba area and had around 40 visitors per day,
mostly university students. Every visitor spent between an hour
and four hours in the cafe.

"We charge a more expensive rate of Rp 5,400 for those who use
the Internet after 5 p.m. as they are mostly office workers,
while a cheaper fee of Rp 4,000 is charged before 5 p.m., when
most of the customers are students from the nearby universities,"
he said.

Valentino criticized Telkom for being insensitive to the
public's need for access to the Internet. This was shown by the
recent increases in phone charges.

Telkom increased local and long-distance phone charges, as
well as the monthly connection fee, by up to 17.9 percent. Under
the current phone charge regime, the rate for streetside call
centers jumped by 16.77 percent for local calls and 12.68 percent
for long-distance calls.

The phone charge hike was part of the government's three-year
plan to jack up phone charges by 45.49 percent in a bid to help
attract new investment to the fixed-line telecommunications
sector.

Voicing similar concerns to Valentino, Waluyo, who owns the
@kas.net Internet cafe in the Galur Sari housing complex in East
Jakarta, revealed that the phone charge hike had put further
pressure on his business, which was already in the doldrums
following the government's decision to increase electricity
charges, increases which are scheduled to continue until 2005.

Waluyo said the number of his customers had dropped by more
than 30 percent to 20 visitors on average per day this year as
compared to an average of 30 people last year.

The business pressures had forced three or four operators in
the area to the wall. "I'm the sole survivor in a tough business.
Nevertheless, my turnover is still sluggish given a decline in
customer interest in using the Internet," he said.

He added that he earned Rp 1.6 million profit a month from the
six computer units in his internet cafe.

According to a survey conducted by state-run PT Indosat, there
are 800 small call centers (locally known as wartel) in Jakarta.
Some of them also serve as Internet cafes. But, many believe that
the real figure runs into the thousands, greatly exceeding the
reported figure.

There are around 3 million Internet users in Indonesia. Of the
total users, 2.5 million people use the Internet in Internet
cafes.

The Internet Cafe Owners' Association (Awari) predicted that
it members' business would fall by 50 percent if no new product
came along to energize the business.

"The business is already in the doldrums as most of our
customers are bored with the existing products," said Michael
Sunggiardi, Awari's chairman.

Michael said that the era of International Relay Chat (ERC),
as the main product of most kiosks, was already passe for most
customers.

"Most of the Internet users use it to check incoming e-mails
and reply to them, as well as to browse," said Michael.