Hi Everyone,
I am new to this forum, I live in bali now sinds
1 october and thought it might be usefull to write
an article here about what internet connections are
availlable in bali to help out some other people.
ADSL and Cable internet are not yet availlable in bali although
they are already availlable in surabaya and jakarta and surrounding
areas.
Most internet cafe's are using a connection type called wavelan. There are several small providers providing wavelan internet connection in bali. Some providers already offer you a 32 Kbps connection unlimited for arround 1,1 million rp while other big providers like Indosat offer a 64 Kbps connection starting from arround 6 million rp per month.
My personal opinion is that wavelan is very expensive as most expats would agree with me I assume. What most people dont know is that most phone providers are offering GPRS internet. You can just connect your phone trough infrared or with a data cable to your computer or buy a GPRS modem. I am currently using a GPRS modem inside my laptop and I got a Matrix ( indosat ) sim card which gives me unlimited internet access for a flat tarrif of 200.000rp per month which is very cheap.
Telkom and Proxl also support GPRS but you will have to pay per Kb.
GPRS is little bit more slow then a phone line. I would say that the speed is arround 24 Kbps.
The new technology coming is CDMA. Telkom already supplies CDMA in bali trough there Telkom Flexy program. With CDMA you need a special mobile phone which you can buy in any phone shop. They will no longer give you a 08 number but you will receive a local number ( in bali 0361 ) so it is cheap if people call you but beware it will not work outside bali. With telkom flexy it is possible to internet against a speed of arround 80 Kbps average ( I have not tested this yet ). Again telkom charges you 3 or 5 rp per Kb depending on postpaid or prepaid. You can check this out at
http://www.telkomflexi.com
Indosat is busy with there starone program to expand also to bali. They expect to be in bali this year with there starone program. This is also CDMA technoloy ( max. speed 153.2 Kbps if i'm not mistaking ). At this moment they have starone in surabaya, jakarta and surrounding areas. Again indosat is giving internet access against a flat tarrif of 200.000rp per month unlimited. You find more information at:
http://www.mystarone.com
I hope this article will be usefull to some people.
Kind Regards,
Sander
