Party lines struggle to lure young Indonesian callers

Party lines struggle to lure young Indonesian callers

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.