Tengui

New Member
Sep 26, 2010
5
0
1
Canggu
Hi Guys,

Been living here for just about 4 years now. I know there have been quite a few posts regarding internet on the forum. Ive pretty much used them all. GPRS, 3g, Global extreme, speedy and now on Blue Line corporate.

As a former IBMer ive had quite a lot experience with data & data voice internet connections over the years. My honest opinion on the state of broadband in Indonesia is obviously pretty poor.

The good news!!!

As I understand it PT telekom has allocated funds for capex spending on its networks. Bad news is being a partly state owned monopoly I doubt we are going to see a massive increase in speed across its networks. I guess we will have to wait and see.

Having just moved,

into our new villa we were faced with the problem of no spare phone lines in our area. I was offered an option of buying 8 lines. As there is quite a lot of construction going on in our area I have put an application in to buy the 8 lines. No im not going to setup a call center however the thought did cross my mind for a brief instant. The lack of people who speak passable English would be the main hurdle to that flight of fancy. I will however be prepared to sell 6 of the 8 lines for whatever they cost me.

Anyway back to internet.

Im a heavy user of the internet. No i don't use bit torrent. Plenty of cheap DVD's for sale, but I do require a solid internet connection. Having used global extreme before and delt with the frustration of a crappy connection I was dubious of the quality of all the wireless services. A local friend referred me to blue line.

The Wonder and Excitement builds!!

Had blue line installed as an interim solution. At great expense I went with a corporate 1 Mbps synchronous plan/connection. The advantage of a corporate/business connection is that its not shared. To give you an example. With your Speedy connection it is shared with up to 8 other households and the connection is asynchronous (upload and download are working at different speeds). Compounded with sharing your connection this makes skype run like a bucket of s**t. Lost packets, noticeable echo, distortion, delay etc etc.

How good is this Blueline shenanigans ???

Skype runs full video conferencing with no noticeable slowdown or dropout any time of day. I can stream video & audio any time of day from the US, Australia and the UK. No problems with video from CNBC, Bloomberg and You tube, Internet radio Abc's JJJ or Radio 1 from the UK is fantastic . Internet pages load noticeably faster than speedy. Its just how the internet should work.

The downside ;(

Its ridiculously expensive. I don't know how they can sleep at night?? Probably very well... If you download lots of data it gets even more expensive. But if there is anything to take away from this it is that the yardstick for Bali has been set. Hopefully in a couple of years it will be available for all.

My Takeaway

Ill try a different plan next month. Unlimited data at 196kb upload/download. Not fussed if video conferencing doesn't always work but if there is no issues with skype voice and internet radio I will be more than happy. Hope you have enjoyed my story and ill update with how it all works out.

Jez
 

pollyanna

Member
Feb 8, 2010
683
0
16
Ubud, Bali
Hi Jez,
Welcome to the forum. I very much enjoyed your post. Please stay around and keep contributing. You gave us some useful info and I appreciate it.

I wish I had your understanding of how the internet works. I've bought a mobile modem. It is marginally faster than the service at our homestay but so much of the time I get a dialog box saying the adapter is unavailable or busy. I have no idea what means. I don't know if it means my mobile modem is faulty or that there is some sort of connection problem or if the service I'm paying for isn't available.

We're moving into our house in a few weeks and I'm already thinking about what we might do for an internet connection.

I hope you're enjoying your new home. I can hardly wait to get into ours.
 

tom

Member
Sep 27, 2009
87
0
6
CA. USA
I too enjoyed your post. Although I have to admit it was mostly jibberish to me. Bytes and tech terms mean little to me. But it sounds like things are looking up. I will move to Lombok in about a year and will have a business there requiring internet. I'm pretty sure Lombok is behind Bali in internet service.
 

Peter Ka

Member
Mar 31, 2010
151
0
16
Hi Tengui, good post. I have been a customer of Blueline too for a few years. While I used them for my primary connection, I have tried many other providers. Like you say, Blueline is expensive.
Unfortunately none of the other providers could deliver a connection that I could rely on. Internet is very important for my business. I only needed a minimum speed of around 256kbps. The problem was that while the relative inexpensive "unlimited" sounds good, in practice it means that very often someone in the "shared" bandwidth is turning on the "waterhose" full on for a long time and killing the available bandwidth for everybody else.
Ping times all ever the place. Bandwidth from 16kbps to 400kbps. Upload often times at a standstill, etc.

Sticking with Blueline until something reliable comes along. (What happened to the much hyped Wimax in Indonesia?)
 

ronb

Well-Known Member
Aug 14, 2007
2,241
56
48
Ubud, Bali
And the price? :icon_biggrin:

Prices are at SOHO Pricing | Blueline Bali Broadband Internet Access

On my current Telkomsel Flash plan I use up my 4 GB allowance in about 3 weeks - so my monthly usage may be about 5GB. With Blueline if this all happened in the daytime, the monthly charge would be 5 million; if all at night, then 1 million; so maybe it would average out at about 2.5 million per month. Yes, this is expensive.
 

LATAH

Member
Oct 12, 2010
166
1
16
Prices are at SOHO Pricing | Blueline Bali Broadband Internet Access

On my current Telkomsel Flash plan I use up my 4 GB allowance in about 3 weeks - so my monthly usage may be about 5GB. With Blueline if this all happened in the daytime, the monthly charge would be 5 million; if all at night, then 1 million; so maybe it would average out at about 2.5 million per month. Yes, this is expensive.

Thanks for translation Ronb - I looked at the blueline site last night and couldn't make heads or talis of it.

Now, if I could just figure out what my average usage is? I share an unlimited cable connection with the villa next door (have no idea what type it is or who supplies it).
Seems ok most of the time (sometimes Skype breaks up and utube or videos are often interrupted).

I've got no idea who to go about finding out what my usage is?
 

Andynice

Member
Nov 4, 2008
64
0
6
Kerobokan and Nice , France
Hi Tengui and all others
Since i moved to Bali i have always been struggling to find a decent internet connection.
I'm in my second house that i rent for the moment and everytime i went to Telkomsel there where no lines available.
I did use Smart for a while but since the end of last year it become crap completely useless and when complained they always told us they working on it and always delayed the end time of work.
I did look into some other options and i'm now using CBN Directnet Wireless
.: CBN :.
I'm using this service since about one month and a half and it's good.
I have a 1 MBPS connection and it's a non shared line, always stable, always 1 MBPS.
The price is more or less 1 Juta (My wife pays the bill and she's out)
If you are interested you should call CBN and made an appointment and they will come to your house to make a survey to see if you are in the area which will work good, if not optimal they will not connect you
CBN BALI
Istana Kuta Galeria Blok PM 3 No. 8
Jl. Patih Jelantik
Kuta, Bali 80361

Phone: (62-361) 769-425
Fax : (62-361) 769-426
Email: sales-bali@cbn.net.id

So far i'm very happy with the service.
I think it's possible to be connected in Canggu but not sure.
Internet in Bali is frustrating so i hope it will help some of you.
Friendly greetings.

Andy
 

ZoomBali

Member
Mar 28, 2016
33
0
6
Denpasar, Bali
www.zoombali.com
I confirm we went to Telkomsel Plaza center and they confirm that they have a plan to install fiber option for all the area without internet but for the areas who already have internet it might take quiet some time (some months or years who knows).
 

mugwump

Well-Known Member
Mar 15, 2011
1,083
193
63
seattle pekutatan
Hi Zoombali,
It is nice to see a new member and welcome you to this site. Please continue posting......sometimes it get results, and sometimes not. Just stay with us and don't give up.
 

Markit

Well-Known Member
Sep 3, 2007
9,317
1,110
113
Karangasem, Bali
I'm soo excited I can hardly keep my little leggies still and I'm from half mast to full wood on an hourly basis:


INDIHOME INSTALLED MY FIBER OPTIC CABLE TODAY!!!

Then they left to have a ceremony otherwise I'd have offered to give everyone of them a freebe as motivational.

Now this means I've got a fiber optic cable hanging there looking loaded with potential so before I collapse I thought I'd ask a couple of dumb questions from those that have had the fiber connections for a while:

1)Do Indihome supply the fiber modem and router/wifi with the connection or is that an extra? If it is an extra is it possible for me to buy a dual band router from them (me and the missus get full bandwidth and the staff have a different log on password and can only use a somewhat slower band). Anyone know (other than the obvious Rimo) where to get a good dual band router?

2)I'm starting out with the 10Gb/TV but I've heard that is now IDR400k + When originally signed up for the service about a year ago it was only 300k, can I insist that is what I'm paying now with any hope of success?

3) Does the router need to be near the TV I'm gonna have connected or is that a separate wire connection or (not actually being up on TV tech) can I use a wifi connection for my TV?

These are all questions I'd thought to ask in the fullness of time but the buggers just turned up today with no warning. Anything else you all can think I should ask please let me know as I'm a bit frazzled what with single-handedly destroying the UK economy last week and then a long flight back to Bali yesterday.

Ta in advance Markit
 

spicyayam

Well-Known Member
Jan 12, 2009
3,592
342
83
Good to hear!

1) They supply or should supply everything (at no cost). The modem we got from them seems decent enough and I wouldn't bother looking at anything else. The speed should be good enough that it shouldn't matter if someone is downloading movies, talking on skype etc.

2) This seems common. They may even say yes, but then they will give you a bill with the more expensive price.

3) You need to run a LAN cable from the modem to another box which then connects to your tv. There is no easy way that i know of to make it wireless.
 

Mark

Well-Known Member
Apr 19, 2004
874
313
63
3) Does the router need to be near the TV I'm gonna have connected or is that a separate wire connection or (not actually being up on TV tech) can I use a wifi connection for my TV?

The closer to the tv the router is the stronger the signal. For your tv to be hooked up to the internet wirelessly it needs to be wifi ready (most new tv's are) or else you may be able to get a wireless dongle for an older model tv that you plug into one of the tv's usb ports. Once the tv is wirelessly connected you can experiment with moving the router to different locations and seeing how strong the signal strength is as measured by the tv.
 

JohnnyCool

Well-Known Member
Jan 10, 2009
1,414
88
48
Sanur
1) They supply or should supply everything (at no cost). The modem we got from them seems decent enough and I wouldn't bother looking at anything else. The speed should be good enough that it shouldn't matter if someone is downloading movies, talking on skype etc.

You get three pieces of hardware:

1. the fibre cable itself to your house (and other needed cables)
2. the modem (which you have to return if you op-out later)
3. a HDMI box which connects the modem to the TV via a LAN cable

2) This seems common. They may even say yes, but then they will give you a bill with the more expensive price.

You probably got a promo price initially - the price went up from January 2016, but still OK

3) You need to run a LAN cable from the modem to another box which then connects to your tv. There is no easy way that i know of to make it wireless.

The "other box", in my case, is a ZTE box with IndiHome Fiber branding. It connects directly to the modem via a LAN cable. A HDMI cable then connects it to the TV.
Ideally, the LAN cable shouldn't run too long a distance from the modem, but I'm not sure how long is "too long".
Mine is about two metres or so and seems fine. The Telkom crew should have set that up for you already.


Dual band modems are not dual internet connections. They are capable of switching between two different frequencies (where available).
If you really want to have your staff connect "separately", you could create an extra access point for them with their own password.
They'd still be using the main connection so I can't see how this would be useful.
Oh, and your connection is 10 Mbps, not 10 GB (I wish).

Two things that Telkom botched initially for me

1. They ran the fibre cable to my lounge room, where my TV is, then looked around and asked where my main computer was!?
It's located in a small adjacent room, so they had to start all-over and run it there.

2. The package also comes with a free digital phone connection, but you have to supply your own phone.
You can call anywhere within Indonesia for 1,000 (?) minutes/month for free.

I already had a fully-functioning phone line which one idiot re-routed to next to my computer.
So, now I have my main normal phone plus the digital one next to each other in the same room, sitting on top of my printer!
 

Markit

Well-Known Member
Sep 3, 2007
9,317
1,110
113
Karangasem, Bali
I'm able to calm down slightly now. It was that or a stroke.

All is working wonderfully - only prob is that I came back from England 1 day before it was installed and in comparison the the UK Broadband it's pretty ordinary but mile and miles ahead of my stupid SIM connection. Selamat Indihome!

I'd like to do a couple of things so questions:

There is the router with a USB connection and the Indihome black box also with a USB connection - I'd like to use either or both to attach a 18GB stick or external hard disk with films and such like to access anywhere - how? which? (I got no instruction booklet with the kit, of course, and I could probably google it but this is easier)

I also got a little remote control box - what's that for? TV I'd guess? Not having a TV yet (or any handbook) it's kinda hard to test but will buy a big mutha fukka hopefully at the weekend.

Speed Demon(ish) Markit
 

spicyayam

Well-Known Member
Jan 12, 2009
3,592
342
83
I think if you plug in a disk to the USB slot on the router you can use it like a network storage device and should be able to stream from it. I haven't tried it yet but it should work. If you need to change settings on the modem just enter 192.168.1.1 into the browser and default password: admin/admin.
 

Markit

Well-Known Member
Sep 3, 2007
9,317
1,110
113
Karangasem, Bali
I think if you plug in a disk to the USB slot on the router you can use it like a network storage device and should be able to stream from it. I haven't tried it yet but it should work. If you need to change settings on the modem just enter 192.168.1.1 into the browser and default password: admin/admin.

Did all that and can see the USB devise but can't get at it's contents from the comp or via ui. Internet isn't much help either surprise, surprise.
 

ronb

Well-Known Member
Aug 14, 2007
2,241
56
48
Ubud, Bali
1) They supply or should supply everything (at no cost). The modem we got from them seems decent enough and I wouldn't bother looking at anything else. The speed should be good enough that it shouldn't matter if someone is downloading movies, talking on skype etc.

You get three pieces of hardware:

1. the fibre cable itself to your house (and other needed cables)
2. the modem (which you have to return if you op-out later)
3. a HDMI box which connects the modem to the TV via a LAN cable

2) This seems common. They may even say yes, but then they will give you a bill with the more expensive price.

You probably got a promo price initially - the price went up from January 2016, but still OK

3) You need to run a LAN cable from the modem to another box which then connects to your tv. There is no easy way that i know of to make it wireless.

The "other box", in my case, is a ZTE box with IndiHome Fiber branding. It connects directly to the modem via a LAN cable. A HDMI cable then connects it to the TV.
Ideally, the LAN cable shouldn't run too long a distance from the modem, but I'm not sure how long is "too long".
Mine is about two metres or so and seems fine. The Telkom crew should have set that up for you already.


Dual band modems are not dual internet connections. They are capable of switching between two different frequencies (where available).
If you really want to have your staff connect "separately", you could create an extra access point for them with their own password.
They'd still be using the main connection so I can't see how this would be useful.
Oh, and your connection is 10 Mbps, not 10 GB (I wish).

Two things that Telkom botched initially for me

1. They ran the fibre cable to my lounge room, where my TV is, then looked around and asked where my main computer was!?
It's located in a small adjacent room, so they had to start all-over and run it there.

2. The package also comes with a free digital phone connection, but you have to supply your own phone.
You can call anywhere within Indonesia for 1,000 (?) minutes/month for free.

I already had a fully-functioning phone line which one idiot re-routed to next to my computer.
So, now I have my main normal phone plus the digital one next to each other in the same room, sitting on top of my printer!

So what you are really saying about the phone is that you cannot transfer the number from your copper-wire service to the Indihome service. In Western countries we would think that was crazy, but Indonesians are used to changing their numbers like underwear - so no big deal.