truelifeajf

New Member
Mar 7, 2014
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Hi all,

I'm on a mission. I need a house within 10km of Kuta, and I need fast (5Mbit/sec +) internet.

I've been to bali many times, I love it, I can now speak the language, and I definitely want to stay there longer.

But the internet speed is the deal breaker. Slow internet means I can't work with my Aus / US clients meaning I can't live / work in Bali.

I'm very familiar with all the internet options in Bali, but finding out anything about Fibre seems impossible.

Does anyone know (at any expense - I don't care) where / how I can get fibre internet? And I'm talking the corporate-grade (10Mbit) fibre. It seems this kind of internet is only available to "businesses" but surely... given the right amount of money, I could find a home somewhere and get it installed?

I know some villas have fibre but it seems that fibre is only around 2Mbit/sec. I need at least 5Mbit/sec.

I'm willing to pay anyone who can do some research for me. Anyone know a local IT nerd who would like some work?

REALLY hoping someone can help :)

Thanks!
 

ronb

Well-Known Member
Aug 14, 2007
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Ubud, Bali
Getting a fibre connection to your house may be possible but is a total waste of time. It is like building a 4-lane highway as the driveway into your property - you have this impressive potentially fast connection onto a congested public network system. Widening the connection out from your house does not fix the Indonesian Internet infrastructure.

Your Internet provider does negotiate with the network owners to provide you with access through Indonesia to the outside world often through Singapore, or maybe KL or Hong Kong. Some may do better than others - read user assessments of Telkom and the others.
 

truelifeajf

New Member
Mar 7, 2014
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Well, yes and no

Getting a fibre connection to your house may be possible but is a total waste of time. It is like building a 4-lane highway as the driveway into your property - you have this impressive potentially fast connection onto a congested public network system. Widening the connection out from your house does not fix the Indonesian Internet infrastructure.

Your Internet provider does negotiate with the network owners to provide you with access through Indonesia to the outside world often through Singapore, or maybe KL or Hong Kong. Some may do better than others - read user assessments of Telkom and the others.

The fibre I've experienced in villas has been FANTASTICALLY stable, even if only slightly faster. The ADSL system is extremely congested, fibre less so because it's new and not everyone can get / afford it.

Even fibre running at 25% of the 'effectiveness' it should be is better than the ADSL running at its best.

I'm sure there's people on these forums that can enlighten me as to what areas have fibre.
 

truelifeajf

New Member
Mar 7, 2014
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Why not check with some of the villas as to what company they are using? On Global Xtreme's website they show the streets which can get fibre:

Yes, I have been. And GlobalXtreme has been mentioned.

Silly me though didn't look at their website since a few months ago when there was definitely no coverage map.

But by crikey!... there's now a list of street names!

Thanks for that :)

So there's fibre everywhere along the coast from Jl Canggu down to Kuta.

Me thinks it's not just the cost keeping people from getting fibre. I'm sure it's near impossible to get installed.

Does anyone have fibre installed? How hard was it to get installed? how fast is it?
 

spicyayam

Well-Known Member
Jan 12, 2009
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When you make inquiries to the ISPs, why not try asking if they know any properties for rent with fibre already installed. As you know everyone in Bali is agent and at least you can test out the connection before committing.
 

truelifeajf

New Member
Mar 7, 2014
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When you make inquiries to the ISPs, why not try asking if they know any properties for rent with fibre already installed. As you know everyone in Bali is agent and at least you can test out the connection before committing.

Thanks for the tip spicyayam,

I should point out that at the moment I have an ad in the Bali Advertiser, Odesk, I've asked my friends in Bali, etc.

I was asking in here as to date I haven't found a single person renting a house with fibre.

I was hoping someone here might know someone.

AirBNB have a few properties with fibre but I'm looking for a yearly rental and so aren't willing to pay AirBNB rates. Besides, nearly all the places on AirBNB with fibre are $600 per night places (very la-di-da places) so well beyond my budget.
 

davita

Well-Known Member
Mar 13, 2012
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Bumping this thread from a year+ ago as yesterday I had fibre-optic cable internet connected to my house in Kerobokan.
The Company is Cyberindo (CBN) and, true to contract, they installed in a couple of hours after a wait of only 8 days.
I've tested the speed on a number of servers and they all record 4.5-5 mbps down and up symmetric. My contract is for up to 5 mbps unlimited.
 

ronb

Well-Known Member
Aug 14, 2007
2,241
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Ubud, Bali
Yes, re-reading the thread emphasizes how much can change in a year. Telkom's roll-out of Indihome around Ubud is quite extensive. The basic service gives 10 Mbit down and 2 Mbit up.
 

davita

Well-Known Member
Mar 13, 2012
4,441
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I hate you all and hope your partners run off with the gardener while you're enjoying your speedy internet.

My gardener is too busy tacking into my broadband with his smartphone to run off with my 'partner'......and she is too busy on her iphone6, connected to CBN and uploading her pics at the speed of lightning, to notice the gardener is here.

Thanks Ronb for your info...is Ubud fibre-optic?.... 'coz around here in Kerobokan they seem to be stringing cables all over the place. I asked the guy and he identified which color of poles belong to which company...seems chaotic.

I confess I don't know nought about fibre-optics so I observed. Seems the big cable houses 6 optical wires which can be distributed into hundreds of individual data receivers. I witnessed them connecting my cable to a distribution box about 500 metres from my house... then they strung that smaller cable to a modem in my bedroom. The cable houses 3 inserts, which I understand they said only one is used, and the others will carry TV in the future, which they already have in Jakarta.

I'm excited about the potential and will post here any new development.
 

JohnnyCool

Well-Known Member
Jan 10, 2009
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Sanur
I was talking to a guy in the computer retail business last week in Denpasar (around the middle area of Jalan Gatot Subrato aka Gatsu). I have dealt with his firm for more than 15 years with no complaints.

I mentioned that I was thinking of buying a new, modern dual-band AC modem but was holding off for the moment in anticipation of Telkom's IndiHome fibre-optic service being available to my home (in Sanur).
His business has IndiHome but he said it sucks in his location and many others around there have multiple complaints.
He quizzed Telkom technicians and was told that the actual fibre-optic cables being used there were of poor quality (cheap), because of the contractors involved.

Apparently, Telkom uses different contractors in different areas to roll out their "service".
Maybe the cables being installed in Sanur are of higher quality. Maybe not. Who knows?

Conclusion? IndiHome in some areas is way too problematic at present. "Crap", if you like. Best to wait and see before diving in.

Other fibre-optic cable providers might be better, IF they're available in your area.

Telkom looks like it's trying to compete with other companies by offering what it can't actually provide (for the price).
Too good to be true? You get, (sometimes), what you pay for.

:cupcake:
 

Markit

Well-Known Member
Sep 3, 2007
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Karangasem, Bali
I have my doubts about differences in fiber-optic cable. If you get a connection then it's there and all the "0s" and "1s" coming down it at what ever computer speed you may get aren't gonna make any difference. Fiber connections are pretty precise and if you have something that disturbs is, say traffic for instance, then it will go off but never come back because it's lost alignment and sure won't heal itself.

But what do I know?
 

JohnnyCool

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Jan 10, 2009
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It's not that simple, Markit, but I understand how confusion can arise.

Fibre-optic cables are about moving light waves through cables and this is a bit more complicated than, say, connecting audio cables to your sound system, where the thickness and "quality" of the wires doesn't really make any audible difference. (Think "Monster Cables" for high-end hi-fi systems - total nonsense - gold-plated connectors, etc, never made the sound "better".)

There are several types of fibre-optic cables and their properties/usefulness are different.
The two main types are single-mode and multimode.

With single-mode, the core is comparatively small so that only a single light wave can be transmitted at a given time. This is fine over short distances because distortion from overlapping light pulses is minimised.
(Yes - you can get "distorted/attenuated signals" with fibre.)

With multimode fibre, the light waves take different pathways through the core of the cable and the cable is physically fatter.
My understanding is that these are "better" for long cable runs, but there are limits. The multiple light paths can result in signal distortion and lost data at the receiving end.

The cable core is what carries the light from source to destination. The bigger the core, the more light it can carry.

I read recently that there is some research taking place to "comb" multiple light waves in fibre optic cables so that they all arrive at the same time, promising even faster data transfers.
A bit like techniques that prevent chromatic aberration in optical lenses.

So I stand by my original comment and still wonder what kind of cables IndiHome is running.
Hope this helps...
 

Markit

Well-Known Member
Sep 3, 2007
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I disagree - this stuff is so blindingly fast (light speed) that it automatically incorporates multiple checking sums and error recovery in it's simplest form, even back 20 years ago when I worked with it. Now you have multi-frequency and multi-color multiplexing that ups the speed into unimaginable Terabyte territory. Not saying the Telekomsel can even spell multiplexing but fact is you don't even need an optic cable for lightspeed transmissions - if the sensor sees the light it can decode it.

Guess we have to agree to disagree.

If it was me I'd look for the problem in cheap and crappy decoder/routers that lose the plot passing the info to your comp. ****ty firmware?
 

JohnnyCool

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Jan 10, 2009
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...Not saying the Telekomsel can even spell multiplexing but fact is you don't even need an optic cable for lightspeed transmissions - if the sensor sees the light it can decode it.

Do you get "lightspeed transmissions" without an optic cable? How? Where is this "sensor" you speak of?

My comments were about Telkom, not Telkomsel.
Telkomsel is the wireless arm of Telkom.

I hope that whenever, (if), you get fibre in Karangasem, they install a decent cable and a functioning modem/router.
Good luck.

For sure, "we have to agree to disagree".
Hakuna matata.
 

Markit

Well-Known Member
Sep 3, 2007
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Ok, don't care if it's called ToKomesel, Telekomskul or TwoKumSwell the point I'm trying to make to you and all who may give a toss is that the fiber optic cable can hardly be your problem - that tech is ancient and when they put your modem in, tested it and then went their merry way it's not gonna degrade - the optic cable I mean. It's just there to pass on a blinking light and it does that and has for the past 25 years eminently well. There's only a couple of suppliers in the world and they know what they're doing - that's all they do.

Your problem is somewhere else.
 

ronb

Well-Known Member
Aug 14, 2007
2,241
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Ubud, Bali
............................................
His business has IndiHome but he said it sucks in his location and many others around there have multiple complaints.
He quizzed Telkom technicians and was told that the actual fibre-optic cables being used there were of poor quality (cheap), because of the contractors involved.
...................................................

We have 2 Indihome services on opposite sides of Ubud for about a month now. When this guy says his sucks and others have complaints - I would like to know more. I would be asking questions like:
* are download speeds measured by speedtest under 10 Mbps by much?
* does the TV service keep operating?
* is it problems with particular web-sites?

Like Markit, I doubt the story about poor quality fibre cable. If they connected poor cable to your property it would be poor all the time and presumably the TV would not work well. We have the TV on for hours and hours and only once or twice have I seen it perform poorly. To view a standard definition channel I think requires about 2 Mbps and to watch 720p HD requires about 4 Mbps. So we have the TV on and speedtest and BitTorrent both tell me we can download at 10 Mbps.

The wiki article on IPTV says
IPTV is sensitive to packet loss and delays if the streamed data is unreliable. IPTV has strict minimum speed requirements in order to facilitate the right number of frames per second to deliver moving pictures. This means that the limited connection speed and bandwidth available for a large IPTV customer base can reduce the service quality delivered.
Our experience with the TV working well suggests that Telkom's fibre infrastructure is OK

The fibre cable to your property is quite slender and goes to a box up a pole like in the attached pic. For one of our properties this is 300 metres away, or the other 150 metres. From there to the central server of TV programs I guess you are are sharing fatter cables. I would like to know more about Telkom's IPTV architecture but have so far not found any detailed info.
 

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JohnnyCool

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Jan 10, 2009
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Back in May, 2015, I had my place "surveyed" by Telkom to determine if I could get IndiHome.
They certainly took their time about it, but in the end, said I could.

A week later, a sales person arrived and asked me which speed package I wanted (10, 20, 50 or 100 Mbps). I said 20 Mbps would be fine.
The next morning, the same person phoned me and said that I could only get 10 Mbps. I was OK with that and having heard nothing more for a couple of weeks, went to main office in Denpasar to find out why.
They "checked" something out the back, returned and said I could get it, but, at the moment the cable could only extend 5 metres (!) from the nearest pole.
(My place is at least 50 metres from what I think is the closest contending pole.)

WTF? I asked them when it could reach my house? They didn't know and suggested that I ask for another "survey" in June.
The irony of all that, IMHO, is that there is a major Telkom depot at the end of my street. In a sane(r) world, I would have thought that technicians from there could pop down to survey my house,
(two minutes on a motorbike), rather than me having to go all the way down to Denpasar and waste more of my time.

The computer business in Gatsu where I've been buying most of my equipment for more than 15 years is not run or staffed by local idiots, so I believe them when they claim their IndiHome is rubbish at present.
I don't know which speed package they have or whether the TV part works properly or not.

When they complained to Telkom, the technicians told them ("confidentially"), it was because of the cable quality that was installed in and around that area.
I am not saying that this is some universal problem with IndiHome in Bali because I don't know.
I still haven't had the pleasure of testing it for myself but I do know one thing:

When/if I get it, I won't be cancelling my normal landline ADSL until I'm convinced it works at my location, as "advertised".

:icon_rolleyes:
 
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Markit

Well-Known Member
Sep 3, 2007
9,317
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Karangasem, Bali
Since the max length you can have on an optic cable before you need a repeater or amplifier is around the 50 mile/80km length I can really understand why you should be restricted to a 5 meter length :icon_wink: NOT! Do you get the idea fiber optics may just be a "Bridge too Far" for the poor untrained Indos being asked to service/provide it?

A wise decision not to give up the present cable just yet.