VoIP technology

Bisnis Indonesia of Aug. 30, 2001 reported that Telkom has officially launched Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service for international telephone calls. In fact, according to Endy Prijanto, PT Telkom's director of the VoIP project, Telkom had a soft launching of this service in May 2001. He further stated that besides PT Telkom, there are five other legal VoIP operators and 28 illegal operators. I don't know what he meant by legal and illegal because as far as I know, there are many kinds of pre- paid VoIP cards sold publicly, in shopping malls and bookstores.

By using VoIP technology, one can make international calls very cheaply compared to ordinary international calls using Indosat 001 or Satelindo 008. As an illustration, an international call to Taiwan through Indosat 001 or Satelindo 008 is about Rp 9000 per minute compared to VoIP technology for about Rp 2000 per minute (about 80 percent cheaper). The charge is about the same as using mobile phone for domestic calls.

VoIP calls can be made to almost all major countries with a similar voice quality. New ITC, SLI Murah, STAR, TelkomSave and 888 are some of pre-paid international calling cards sold freely and publicly. These can easily be found in bookstores in shopping malls. Prices range from Rp 80,000 to Rp 200,000, depending on the length of time.

ADRIANUS HIYUNG TJUNG

Jakarta