Operators battle for better services during holidays

Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Four major cellular telephone operators in Indonesia are battling to satisfy customers and lure hundreds of thousands of new ones during the upcoming Idul Fitri holidays, by offering a wide range of services, including some unusual ones.

Telkomsel, which currently holds a 54 percent market share in Indonesia, said that they would increase their short message service (SMS) capacity from 1,500 messages per second to around 2,500 to 4,000, to prevent the network from jamming up by an overload of SMS traffic during the holidays.

Telkomsel corporate spokesperson Suryo Hadiyanto said that Telkomsel would add 10 mobile base transceiver station (BTS) along the mudik (exodus) path to overcome the network problems often occur during the peak season.

Under the service name Telkomsel Siaga, Suryo said that Telkomsel was working together with 21 national automotive distributor service posts. It was also working with 21 radio stations to provide information for the journey.

"We also have 'free roaming' service for customers during the holidays, so that they can receive a call from anywhere in Indonesia without being charged, said Suryo.

Besides the usual service, Telkomsel is also offering a life insurance service for its users.

"Right now we are working together with Cigna to provide the service," said Suryo. Telkomsel users could send a text message to 2580, and they would be charged Rp 5,000 (58 U.S. cents) for an insurance policy worth Rp 50 million for death and Rp 250,000 a day for hospital care. The insurance will expire 30 days after the SMS is sent.

Meanwhile, Satelindo and IM3 cellular operators, both owned by Indosat, are also preparing for the unofficial battle of services between the operators.

Cellular Marketing Director Fadzri Santosa said that Satelindo promoted a program called Mentari Mudik Asyik which was a service unlike any other. It includes building 50 temporary rest stops along the northern coastal highway, and will have facilities offering massages, haircuts, TVs, VCDs, PlayStations and also snacks and refreshments for tired travelers.

Fadzri added that Satelindo wanted to increase the number of its customers by providing the low-cost Mentari starter pack, which sell at a price of Rp 50,000.

As for roaming, Fadzri said that Satelindo already provided free-roaming service to their customers and also a flat price of Rp 1,499 per minute.

Fadzri also added that Indosat, would add 500 BTS more and increase its SMS capacity from 700 messages per second to 1200. Since both Satelindo and IM3 are under Indosat, so the service improvement will affect both.

Excelcomindo, which enjoys 16 percent of the market share, launched starter packs called Perdana Bening which provides many advantages for new users, said Excelcomindo Corporate Spokesperson Fritz E. Simandjuntak.

He said that people who bought the new starter packs would also get a map for their journey home in the holiday season, and it would also provide 20,000 free car headsets.

Fritz said that Excelcomindo was not worried about the network congestion because Excelcom had a large SMS capacity. He said that currently Excelcomindo could handle 2 million SMS per hour. With 2.7 million customers, the SMS capacity would be more than sufficient.