When Internet Is Expensive & Slow.....

Among SEA countries, Indonesia has one of the most expensive and rank lower on the speed levels when it comes to mobile and fixed broadband. This renders even valid when it comes to mobile broadband. Indonesia even ranked on the lowest end when it comes to affordability of internet all according this worldbank data . Prior reading those factual research, I was personally comparing internet to Thailand and even small country such as Laos, the internet speed was a lot better and cheaper. They were cheap that my Indonesian brain can’t comprehend. It’s also partly the things that makes me never want to leave. However, since I am mobile, I can’t rely on fixed broadband, instead, I rely a lot of portable wifi that’s registered on mobile broadband plans.

There are so many cons using mobile broadband especially there are more than 4 providers to choose from in the country. But one that’s known as the best of them all is Telkomsel because they have bigger coverage and overall good speed. I have tested everything and Telkomsel is the only reliable network one can get which obviously comes with heft price. For example, the current plan I am having is 20GB for $4 that has 7 days validity which is quite more expensive when compared other providers. But if you’re gaming like me and online 24/7 with high consumption on upload, download and online web graphic, I spent more than $8/week just for the internet. This is why, whenever I am outside & I want to download large games or fast upload, I use the Wifi on the co-working spot.

Over here, mobile gaming is a lot more popular than PC gaming. It’s because everyone here has smartphone but not necessarily PC/laptop. But unfortunately, mobile broadband is still so expensive that even a presidential candidate vows to make internet cheaper. For me, I didn’t really mind paying more sometimes because I would rather have it faster than getting high blood pressure from a slow-internet connection.

I remember that internet was such a commodity if you’re working from Co-working spots in Bali. It’s like the thing that keeps co-working spaces operating. They are essentially selling connection and speed. But that was in Bali. It’s mainland Java, wifi is everywhere but the speed would vary a lot. A so-called WFC (work from cafe) that I frequent in, their coffee costs almost similar to Starbucks but they have better connectivity and speed. Library is not quite an option if you want free fast wifi because it’s all linear with what you’re paying. If you’re not paying for anything, don’t expect to get any fast speed internet. Free, yes but not ‘fast’.

The other day, I was visiting a cafe called Ekologi. Their Wifi is the fastest in town with average speed of 50Mbps. They serve good coffee and with less than $3, I could download over 100gb without problem and it’s a lot cheaper than if I were to keep buying my mobile broadband. Usually these days in a house, a family would install a fixed broadband that costs them around $32/month. There are cheaper options with slower speed but if you want to do any type of online gaming, you would have the need to invest a little bit more into your internet speed.

This is one of the thing that I love when back to the city because I got to visit this co-working spot with a very fast Wifi that otherwise doesn’t really exist back home. I can download any game seamlessly and even downloading games like COD is a piece of cake. When I was dowloading this game BDO (Black Dessert Online) it has 60gb download and took around 30-35 minutes before finish. I can download them and do something else in the background while the game downloads.

I remember back in the day when I often played games with my online friends. It was pretty awful experience and I ended up secluding myself for any online gaming. With a few exception when I went to PC cafe or using my friend’s device and connection. There are people from certain countries who can’t comprehend that internet is some other place is a lot more expensive than their place. But even gaming is quite an expensive hobby as I found it lately. I mean, there’s a certain price to enter just to indulge in these games. For me, I can only afford most of the games on my own recently so it’s why the games I played are quite outdated except a few games that I was gifted with. I really hope in the future, internet would be a lot more affordable because there are so many things we can do with cheaper internet especially better accessibility in third-tier areas where it’s quite far from the city center. Besides, almost everyone these days are content creator/work digitally where they also make money on the side from internet. Having them to be slightly cheaper would create more opportunities as well.