sud0n1m
Hi all, I've done a round up of Bali Internet Service Providers (ISPs). My place is on a hill in Jimbaran without phone lines so my focus is on the various wireless providers. Looks like Indosat's 3.5g or Blueline's service are the best bang for the buck based on my "pain index".
Click to Look at my Bali Broadband Roundup
Thanks nomad4ever for doing
the first one
Sanurian
sud0n1m
Your
Bali Broadband Roundup was both interesting and informative, up to a point.
Living up on
The Bukit, can't you spend some time (and money) to get a telephone line? The current options you're considering are way too expensive for me, and anybody else, unless they have a lot of disposable money (= "rich").
I'm not sure about the other parts on that web-site...looks and sounds like a load of crap to me. Please excuse me if I'm sounding rude. Each to his own - if it works for you and your colleagues, good luck.
Your comparison table omitted quite a few other ISP's, like Centrin, Telkom, etc. I'm not sure that they offer anything 'better' or more 'competitive'.
For those who might be interested in all this, look for yourself at:
http://topstartup.com/2007/06/01/bali-b ... d-roundup/
The limited round-up is fine. Poke around a bit more and you might want to cut your typing fingers off.
8)
DCC
Allan, If you please - could you explain in lay terms the 3.5g technology and is the fact of no quality cable to Indonesia the culprit of sloooooow speads?
Jimbo
I use 3.5g asurce whilst on the move and it report 400kbtes connection speed.
spitfire
I visited Indosat today and they have a promo from 14 May to 31 December. Interesting for me as an existing Indosat Matrix user is that I can choose Paket 1. It's for the 1 GB p/month usage of 3,5G. You pay Rp. 130.000 p/month for the first 3 months and Rp. 200.000 for the following months after that. If you buy the USB modem from them (at Rp. 2.230.000) the first 3 months will be free of charge, meaning that the modem will actually cost Rp. 1.840.000. Calculated over a period of 12 months, the 3,5G use will cost an average of Rp. 300.000 p/month. Additionally they offer 5% discount on my handphone bill when the total amount is over Rp. 350.000 in a month.
This looked very attaractive to me, so the Indosat guys came to my house to test the coverage. But when they arrived the network was down.... :lol:
They will come back tomorrow, but if it works fast, they will have me as a second customer!
spitfire
I have been using Indosat 3G for a few days and the speed is excellent! The fastest I have ever had (in Bali) and definately faster than our adsl from Telkom Speedy that I use (alone, not shared) at the office. Very well suited for Skype with use of webcam, even with a signal strenght of 1 grade out of four.
O
Testing centrin 3g service:
I've recently signed up with centrin for unlimited email access with their promotional rate of around 260.000/month (with the one time subscription fee it came to a total of 313.000) than ran until may 31st - I don't now what the current rate is-. To this you have to add 950.000 for the data card/modem unless you already have a 3G phone with bluetooth capability that could then be used as a modem.
Centrin is using XL as their provider so you can check on XL website their 3G coverage for Bali. If there is no 3G coverage, you can still connect using XL GPRS network but at lower speed.
I've been using the service from Kerobokan with an average speed of around 50kbps but it's not a steady connection as it can drop to much lower speed probably depending on the traffic on the network; overall I would say that you get a slightly higher speed than using a fixed line Telkomnet connection which is a far cry from broadband access. I'm currently in Jakarta and I get the same speed, I was even able to connect from the car on my way from the airport which is a good way to kill time in the usual traffic jam...
Overall I must say that for an unlimited service, the price is decent -if you are more concerned about mobility than speed- and the people at Centrin in Denpassar are very helpfull. The only problem was that I had to wait around 10 days before the service was activated as they have to do that from Jakarta (don't ask me why).
spitfire
[b]Re: RE: Bali ISP roundup - Broadband Wireless only[/b]
[quote=Allan]Excellent news and thanks for the update Spitfire.
Considering it's five times cheaper I guess there are a few satellite companies watching their businesses evaporate right about now. :)[/quote]
I just don't hope my neighbours are watching this and subscribe as well :lol: (would affect the speed)
spitfire
This post is from my hotelroom in Jogyakarta using my 3G modem! Just to let you know that Indosat have made me happy again (and that'snot always the case with them...).
Bert Vierstra
Ok.
Here is my problem with services like that.
Many people will use it, and unfortunately, will misuse it, intentionally or not.
I did a quick search on the IP address you used to post your last message.
This IP address is listed in a few spam databases, and therefore would not be very suitable for serious business use, its "contaminated".
This is also true for plenty of telkom dial up ip addresses. when I still used telkom, I often could not send emails, because the ip address was blacklisted somewhere.
Check if your IP is listed, here:
http://www.spamhaus.org/
You will find that if you use a service that routes all traffic through one or a small set of IP addresses, or a limited set of ip addresses are assigned such as is the case with dial-up or something similar, those addresses soon get "contaminated".
This is because people are sending (email) spam, or people are infected with some virus that does it for them.
Even my sat service has problems with that. Although I have 4 private ip addresses, all my web browsing goes through a proxy, that I cannot turn off. Its also "contaminated".
spitfire
Yes Bert, that's true! I have found out already because my wife's email was rejected by her company in Holland. Luckily in our case, we are at work during the day and are using it mainly for private reasons. But we'll see in the future what happens. I specifically asked Indosat if I would be stuck to a minimum time of supscription and that is not the case. So if I don't like it anymore, I cancel and have to try to sell my modem at the best price to cover the loss. As an alternative to this, I use Gmail to send urgent mails to recipents that filter me (while travelling) as I am now.
Still, for browsing and keeping in contact wit the friends and relatives this shouldn't be a problem right?
BTW: I had the "spam filter rejections" with other providers including Telkom Speedy as well. Isn't it an issue in general for Indonesian IP adresses? As long as illegal films, software, bags, clothes etc. are offered in shopping malls next to authentic brand outlets, it's likely to apply to malicious internet usage as well.
frozzty
heard the hush hush that telkomsel flash will come to bali, telkomsel got the largest network of bts networks (state owned) wuhuuu, their testing on it now. soon 3,5G broadband will come to BALI !
I've tried it in jakarta and bandung, on my laptop with usb, using my 6233 nokia 3G phone, it goes well, DL speed from 112-420kbps ping real time. .WOWW.. and thats on my 3G phone, imagine on a HSDPA phone. up to 2MBps woww.. i used the Rp100k 27 hour for one week time usage. and others. excellent. they have other promo for the modem and the bundling of usage too.
well .. thats about the it. keep update the 411 about them coming to town.
Cheers,
Sergio
Great news frozzty, thanks for the update!
nomad4ever
[quote=spitfire]Yes Bert, that's true! I have found out already because my wife's email was rejected by her company in Holland. Luckily in our case, we are at work during the day and are using it mainly for private reasons. But we'll see in the future what happens. I specifically asked Indosat if I would be stuck to a minimum time of supscription and that is not the case. So if I don't like it anymore, I cancel and have to try to sell my modem at the best price to cover the loss. As an alternative to this, I use Gmail to send urgent mails to recipents that filter me (while travelling) as I am now.
Still, for browsing and keeping in contact wit the friends and relatives this shouldn't be a problem right?
BTW: I had the "spam filter rejections" with other providers including Telkom Speedy as well. Isn't it an issue in general for Indonesian IP adresses? As long as illegal films, software, bags, clothes etc. are offered in shopping malls next to authentic brand outlets, it's likely to apply to malicious internet usage as well.[/quote]Hah, I didn't know that Indosat is already offering 3G or 3.5G in Bali. On their website it doesn't say anything about it, only Jakarta, Yogya and Surabaya. Did you find any coverage maps for Bali?
Anyway, good that there are more and more affordable Broadband Internet options now popping up. 3G or 3.5G is a great technology as well...
Hopefully we all can enjoy more and more bandwidth for less and less money over the next couple of months....
spitfire
well, it´s been a month now using Indosat 3G and I am satisfied... It´s definately the best so far for me, but there are many moments of slow or non internet connection. Switching to GPRS usually helps, but is slower ofcourse. Signal will be stronger )EDGE' but that will at least get my email out...
Best of worst case so far.
nomad4ever
What is it with all those Telkomsel Dunia 3G advertisements popping up everywhere around Denpasar. Does it mean, that 3G is possible already? Their website is tooooo mystic for me , it looks like they want to charge 3G per minute and calls or videocalls.....
Hmmmm......clueless.
Anyone tried Telkomsel Dunia 3G and has first-hand experience???
Bert Vierstra
I have Telkomsel, and its says 3G on my phone when I am in Denpasar.. Haven't tried out surfing yet...
frozzty
dont try the 3G service for the internet on telkomsel, they're fast, but they charge very high on the GPRS rate, sure thing its expensive. whenever u got 3G signal u might try the video call, or the video on demand, but what's the use ? i've tried it from blue ocean beach video calling my wife in jakarta. Just wait for the flat time based Flash from telkomsel, if you're around jakarta or bandung, do give it a try. i think the rate is much cheaper than the wifi voucher usage and faster too.
411 update for flash service, next is surabaya (coming soon) then the infrastructure is ready for bali. but, lets hope it'll be here soon in bali.
frozzty
just update the 411 on Telkomsel Flash, surabaya has launched Telkomsel Flash, when is Bali going to Launch, maybe soon.
it appears here
http://www.telkomsel.com/web/cakupan
BaliLife
Ok.. So say if I didn't want to spend more than $50 US per month, am in jimbaran and access is no issue, assuming I want good connectivity and unlimited usuage.. What is my best option?
Ct
