MegaNet, Telkomsel combine services

The marriage between the GSM cellular phone and Internet electronic-mail technology is something that many time-crunching, information-thirsty individuals will cheer.

Over the world, one can see the areas of GSM mobile communications and the Internet merge.

Both markets are booming in almost every country worldwide. Many GSM operators see this as an opportunity to create more services and more benefits for the user.

In Indonesia, recently, MegaNet, an Internet Service Provider (ISP) that operates in 16 cities, and Telkomsel, a Global System for Mobile (GSM) communications operator that covers Indonesia's 27 provinces, agreed to combine their services.

The combined technology is called e-phone, which is short for electronic mail on a cellular phone. Touted as the first of its kind in Asia, e-phone combines the immediate reachability of cellular phones and low-cost e-mail messaging.

MegaNet is optimistic that e-phone will be attractive to Internet users because of its capability in making e-mail available in real time, any time, any where, even without a computer.

"Most Internet users can afford cellular phones," said MegaNet's managing director, Kendro Hendra. He estimates that 90 percent of Internet users currently have cellular phones.

E-phone only requires standard equipment. Users don't have to invest in new expensive cellular phones or accessories. As long as the GSM cell phone is equipped with Short Message Services (SMS), it is capable of receiving and sending e-mail messages -- up to 160 characters -- as well as receiving notification of incoming e-mail directly from an e-mail server without going through an operator.

Those are not its only features. E-phone also enables users to send text messages from cellular phones to fax machines, pagers and cell phones from other GSM operators.

Both Telkomsel and MegaNet have strong reasons to be optimistic. The Association of Internet Service Providers estimates that there are about 40,000 cybernauts in Indonesia. As a comparison, there are approximately 600,000 GSM users and Telkomsel has 260,000 customers, or 43.3 percent of total GSM users.

The e-phone services are now available immediately for Telkomsel users. Telkomsel users who subscribe to ISPs other than MegaNet will be offered special MegaNet-plus-e-phone packages.

MegaNet subscribers who do not yet subscribe to Telkomsel's services will have a special offer to buy KartuHalo.

Services

A Telkomsel subscriber with any Internet account can now enjoy most e-phone services. The only exception is the incoming e-mail notification which is only possible for a Telkomsel user who subscribes to MegaNet.

With e-phone technology, Telkomsel users can save money and time. First, there is no extra charge for receiving SMS by a Telkomsel user.

Second, getting immediate notification of incoming e-mail means no more delays in responding an urgent e-mail.

Moreover, because there is no need to check the mail regularly, money can be saved on login time and phone bills.

Any Internet user can now take advantage of the e-phone services. From any where in the world, they can reach Telkomsel users in a matter of seconds by typing 0811XXXXXX@sms.mega.net.id (replace 0811XXXXXX with KartuHalo number). For the sender, it is just the cost of sending an e-mail; for the recipient, there is no cost.

Telkomsel also guarantees the safety of messages sent by e- phone. The GSM system provides encryption to SMS, from one terminal to another.

Telkomsel's director of technics and engineering, Garuda Sugardo, said: "Sending data over GSM is even safer than from analog and wired phones."

MegaNet-Telkomsel

Although MegaNet only started its business on April 1 last year, it is already one of the larger ISPs in the country.

It boasts a membership of over 9,600 users in 16 major cities throughout Sumatra, Java, Bali, Kalimantan and Sulawesi, as well as international roaming in 25 countries worldwide.

It is also an ISP that offers the most innovative value-added services.

Prior to e-phone, MegaNet was already offering e-page (sending e-mail messages to pagers), e-faxMail (sending e-mail messages from a computer to a fax machine) and e-fax2fax (sending fax pages to another fax machine over the Internet network with the cost of a local call).

In fact, e-phone services combine MegaNet's already marketed services, namely the e-page and the e-faxMail.

For MegaNet, choosing Telkomsel was not just because Telkomsel has the widest coverage area but also, as Kendro explains because "they are the most innovative".

Indeed, Telkomsel, who started its services in May, 1995, has similar services with those of MegaNet.

Besides serving digital wireless voice calls, it also enables the cellular phones to communicate with fax machines and the Internet (FARIDA).

Garuda said Telkomsel does not see e-phone and the Internet as competitors. On the contrary, it sees the use of GSM and the Internet as very complimentary because with this combination, users can send and receive e-mail any where, any time, any place.

This creates more convenience for the customer and also more air-time for Telkomsel, said Garuda.

Because of this, Telkomsel would like to give this added value to all its customers.

For further information contact MegaNet on telephone number (62) (021) 5212928.