ISPs threaten 'internet blackout'

Johannes Simbolon, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The country's Internet service providers (ISPs) are giving consideration to suspending services for one day to warn the government about their plight, caused by allegedly unfair competition from TelkomNet Instan, a subsidiary of state telecommunications company PT Telkom.

Heru Nugroho, chairman of the Association of Indonesian Internet Service Providers (APJII), told The Jakarta Post on Monday that the association's members had, in principle, agreed to the idea, but they had yet to decide on the timeframe and scope of the Internet blackout.

"We are still discussing whether to suspend our services only for individual or corporate customers, or for access to local or international websites," Heru explained.

He said the idea surfaced following the frustration felt by APJII's members over what they saw as the government's apparent indifference toward their difficulties.

Heru said earlier that about half of APJII's 90 members had downsized their operations due to lack of subscribers. Among the companies severely hit by the competition was WasantaraNet, a 51- percent subsidiary of state-owned post firm PT Pos Indonesia, which early this month stopped providing a service in 40 cities across the country.

Wasantara was one of the country's largest ISPs, servicing 168 cities, including small ones, across the country.

The companies cannot compete with TelkomNet, which, apart from being cheap, provides better technology, enabling customers to access the Web quickly.

TelkomNet charges Internet users Rp 165 per minute for both phone access and internet access, while customers of other ISPs have to pay Rp 195 per pulse (two minutes during peak hours, three minutes off-peak) for phone access, plus Rp 3,500 per hour for internet access.

TelkomNet uses digital technology, while many other ISPs use analog technology due to difficulties in obtaining permits from Telkom to use digital technology. Telkom holds the monopoly over the country's telecommunications network.

According to Heru, APJII has often asked the government to push Telkom to cut the phone access price for other ISPs so that they can better compete on price against TelkomNet, but, he said, the government had thus far made no response.

"Thus, we are planning to withdraw services for one day to warn the government about our difficulties," he said.

During the blackout, Internet users may still access the web using TelkomNet.

Telecommunications analyst Roy Suryo called on the government to step in to solve the ISPs' difficulties.

He agreed that Telkom had to provide discounts to other ISPs for using its network, to enable them to compete.

"Rather than providing discounts, Telkom, in some regions, charges ISPs a fixed monthly fee 10 times higher than the normal ones, because it considers the phone lines as 'dormant', as the ISPs never use them to make outgoing calls," Roy said.

"Of course they don't use the phone lines for outgoing calls because they are used by their customers for Internet access," Roy said.

He added that in many foreign countries, owners of telecommunications networks are not allowed to run an ISP business, to ensure fair competition.

The government may allow Telkom to continue its ISP business as there is no obligation to copy the systems of other countries, Roy said. But the government must draw up regulations to ensure fair competition.

Meanwhile, Pande Radja Silalahi, a member of the Commission for Business Competition (KPPU), said the agency had been informed about the issue and had set up a small task force to study whether Telkom had violated the regulations designed to ensure fair competition.