Untangling the Impact of Expired Data Quotas on Ride-Hailing Drivers and Online Sellers

Entering the first quarter of 2026, Indonesia’s digital economy continues to be the national backbone. However, behind the ease of digital transactions lies a crucial issue pressuring its players: the policy of expired internet quotas. For ride-hailing drivers (ojol) and online sellers, the internet is their main production tool. When access is constrained by a rigid active period, the impact can ripple from individual expenditures to microeconomic efficiency.

In traditional economic theory, unused inputs are usually assets (inventory). Yet in today’s telecommunications industry, the ‘raw material’—digital data—can vanish because of active period rules. For some workers in the informal digital sector, this condition is felt as an additional invisible cost that must be paid from their earnings.

Ride-hailing drivers rely on apps that run in real time in the background, constant GPS usage, and data-based communication with customers. The impacts commonly felt include:

In 2026, the Live Commerce trend (selling via live broadcasts) is becoming a standard in digital marketing. This activity requires a stable connection and large data consumption. Expired quota policies may impact:

People often compare internet quotas with other commodities such as prepaid electricity or balances in digital wallets. If electricity purchased with rupiah does not expire even when unused, questions arise why internet data are treated differently. The comparison is an analogy of consumer perception and not an equivalence within the regulatory framework, because the telecom sector is regulated as an access service, not an energy utility. This debate fuels public discourse about rollover data models or flexibility in the primary quota’s active period.

While awaiting developments in telecommunications policy, several mitigation steps can be taken, among others:

The expired-quota policy is not only a technical service issue but also part of the cost-efficiency discourse in the digital economy. Some argue that protecting the remainder of internet quotas can be seen as a form of safeguarding operating costs for small-scale digital economy actors. Without adjusting the service model or improving data-use literacy, the potential cost inefficiency may continue to be felt by workers in the informal digital sector.

Are there government regulations banning expired quotas?

To date, regulations still grant operators freedom to determine the active period of services. This issue has surfaced in legal and public policy debates, including through a constitutional reference in the Constitutional Court.

How can ride-hailing drivers save data quotas?

One way is to download offline maps on navigation apps so data usage can be reduced when in areas with weak signal or when not accepting orders.