More costly city calls

More costly city calls

Although the number of people who own telephones is still low in Indonesia as compared to many of its neighboring countries, this handy means of telecommunication is now regarded a standard necessity in middle-income bracket homes.

Owning a telephones is nowadays considered appropriate even in families that one could regard as belonging to the less privileged groups of our society, and for a valid reason. Since in this modern age, they too must compete to secure a living, for them the telephone is often no less important than for any other entrepreneur.

The long lines of people who can be seen waiting on weekdays for a connection in front of telephone booths in Jakarta and in most provincial towns in this country supports the assumption that telephones have now come to be regarded as a necessity for a growing number of people nationwide.

Actually, such a development could have been expected long ago as the rapid pace of economic and social development continues. In Jakarta and other big cities, a telephone connection is often the only way to contact another person at a given time. It also alleviates the need for people to crowd onto buses, to fight the endless traffic snarls and to find parking spaces. And as most parents are now working, the telephone is a reassuring means to connect them with their children at home.

Aware of this public need, the government has tried its best to broaden the country's telecommunications network, while at the same time making serious efforts to improve the quality of the telephone company's service. Still, complaints are heard. For years, for example, people have been fretting about what they perceive to be excessively high telephone bills.

By nature, Indonesians are not complainers. On occasion, however, and particularly as talk of mismanagement in many government agencies or state-owned companies circulate in the community, the burden is felt to be too heavy.

In the electricity business, for example, customers have their power cut off if they are a little late in paying their monthly bills. On the other hand the state-owned electricity company PLN never seems to have paid much attention to complaints of low voltage, or of frequent unannounced blackouts, not to speak of offering apologies for the inconvenience caused to customers.

So far it seems that the public has largely been powerless in facing such manifestations of official arrogance. The House of Representatives, as usual, appears reluctant to talk about it. Even the Indonesian Consumers Agency has been mostly silent.

To get back to our telephone system, we greatly appreciate the company's efforts to make this modern means of communication available to as many people as possible, for example by lowering the installation fees. We also understand the government's desire to get its investment in the telephone business back as soon as possible.

It is unfortunate, however, that the 10 percent increase in telephone charges for city calls, as announced by Minister of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications Joop Ave recently, can so easily give the impression that the cheaper installation costs are merely bait to get more customers, in order to boost the company's revenues. City calls, after all, are the kind of calls most people in the middle-class and lower-income groups make to do all kinds of transactions.