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.