Party lines struggle to lure young Indonesian callers

Sun, 30 Mar 1997

Party lines are nothing new in Indonesia. They were first offered in the 1980s, but it was not until late last year that their popularity began to boom following the improvement of telecommunications services in the country. K. Basrie of The Jakarta Post wrote the following reports on the phenomenon.

JAKARTA (JP): Party lines, claimed to be operated from Canada, Hong Kong, Sweden and Cameroon, are booming again in Indonesia.

Three years ago, access to the hot lines from Hong Kong were blocked following strong protests from the public, including members of the House of Representatives. According to the critics, the saucy conversation could damage the morals of the nation.

This time, the operators have used an old trick to entice callers in Indonesia where talks on sex are taboo.

In their advertisements they explain that callers should be at least 18 years old and talk about politics, sex and Suku, Agama, Ras dan Antar Golongan (SARA -- tribal affiliations, religion, race and societal groups) is forbidden.

In the advertisements, widely published in the local mass media and aired on several TV stations everyday, each of the operators offers a series of telephone numbers.

They claim their services are "only" a chance to meet and chat with friends from all over the world, escape from daily boredom, listen to the latest gossip from Hollywood and "read" the horoscope predicting future careers and lovers.

But the warning is apparently no more than an amateur camouflage. "Talking dirty" is not uncommon on any of the lines.

Some of the services even provide special lines for saucy conversation. Recordings of sensual female voices whispering romantic pleasures are also available to give the callers a sense of erotic ecstasy.

Sex

Callers of an English-language chat line service are welcomed by a deep, sexy female voice softly whispering in your ear: "Hi, welcome to our planet chat where you can meet other adults like yourself who, just like you, wanna have a real, good time. It's like no other place on earth. This planet chat is more than you could ever imagine. Here on this wild planet you can hang out for as long as you want. But before you begin, you should know that you must be at least 18 years old, or I'm afraid you have to hang up. So, if you're ready to proceed, say hello and have fun."

Ring 001-1-416-208-6042 of Persahabatan Dunia (Global Friendship), and a female voice will welcome you: "Oh, hello. You're nice. My name's Helena. And I'm here for your romantic pleasure. Oh... please, please, stay with me and live together. Oh ... I can feel your hard, sweet breath on my neck. Oh ... yesss ... yesss (and so on)."

After listening to this one can seriously ask if there is any difference between these "let's get to know you" conversations and telephone sex lines. Of course, the answer is almost nothing.

The only difference is that the service operators also have a special dating line service. Most of the services offer a mailbox for callers to put their name, age, personal description and type of partner they are looking for.

So, what do the operators get from running such a business? Is it a "camouflaged" campaign which one day could lead Indonesians, in particular the young generation, to have insatiable lust for telephone sex? Or, is it just in the name of fun?

So far, nobody, including PT Indosat and PT Satelindo -- the country's international telecommunications providers -- can provide appropriate answers.

Mystery

Even the identity of the service operators remain a mystery.

"We don't know who the operators are and we don't have any business deals with them," said J.B. Basuki, a spokesman for state-owned Indosat.

"They are hiding behind their ads. Although the services also provide great income for our company, Indosat actually does not like their way because they ruin the image of our firm and country," he added.

Lesmana, from the customer care service of the privately-owned Satelindo, agreed. "So far, we have no idea who the companies are and why they do this," he said.

"But the services definitely provide our company a big profit as well as a series of public complaints," he said.

The number of calls to Cameroon, for example, has jumped from no more than one call per day in recent years to about 20 calls per day at present, Lesmana said.

Today, many of the lines utilize 008 (from Satelindo) for international direct dialing (IDD) rather than 001 (Indosat). The latter blocked access to the chat lines from Hong Kong in 1993.

Although still in the dark, Basuki said, the operators might have a business deal with IDD providers in their respective countries, particularly those which have an imbalance in the flow of international calls with Indonesia. Sweden, for instance, has a bilateral agreement with Indonesia.

"The so-called 50-50 mutual agreement requires Indonesian providers to share half of the total time calls made to Sweden to our partners in that country," Basuki said.

Aware that the flow of calls from Indonesia was still lower than those from Sweden, the local providers invited firms -- based on a business deal -- to attract as many calls as possible from Indonesia, he said.

By so doing, Indonesian providers could share the total tariffs with their partners overseas, who would later share it again with service operators, said Basuki.

In order to meet the target, "the operators then create an entertaining service because they know that many Indonesians like to do something for fun," he said.

Besides investing some money for advertisements and a few staff, the operators only need to install several answering machines.

Machines

But regardless of what number you dial, callers are firstly welcomed by an answering machine. The introduction differs from one line to another. Sometimes, it is hard to press the optional number as instructed by the recording voice. It sounds like the machines are broken.

On average, the prologue takes at least five minutes of your call time. And if you continue to listen to the seemingly broken recording, it could last 30 minutes and be worth Rp 150,000 (US$62.50). The phone bill will of course soar to a gigantic amount if you are taken in by the atmosphere and forget to look at your watch.

"We have had a lot of complaints from the public, who accused our company for failing to inform them that the line was the equivalent of an international call," said Lesmana of Satelindo.

So, what makes people dial a party line?

Hendry, a regular caller from West Jakarta, said: "It depends on how you use such a line. I enjoy it because I find that it's the most effective way for me to practice my English with English-speaking ladies."

Hendry, a university student, said he always dialed from a telephone booth so he could easily monitor the time.

But is it really an effective way to learn a language?

"It's okay if callers have no problem with the tariff but we deeply regret it if the line is used for something that gives nothing to the callers," Basuki said.

Will the "camouflaged" lines be blocked?

"This depends on the public," said Basuki.

So the best tip is to steer your teenaged children away from party lines and educate them on the dangers of fanciful advertising.

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