It’s FINALLY here! FINALLY in Bali we can have
real internet Broadband! (“Broadband” just
means a very fast connection to the internet) But
what about the actual speed you may ask? 50 Kbps?
128 Kbps? NO! How about 300 Kbps! Oh, but
I’ll bet it’s expensive, you may say! Is
it more than 3 million a month for that speed? NO!
More than 2 Million? NO! Does 300,000 a month sound
good to you? Oh, I know, the catch is I must install
a bunch of expensive equipment, isn’t that it?
NO! It uses your regular existing phone line!
Ah, but then I have to get a second phone line so I can get
phone calls while I’m on the Internet, right?
NO! While you use your ONE phone line (your existing
one) for the internet you can also use the same line to make
and receive voice calls or even send and receive faxes!
At the SAME time!
What is this called? It’s called TelkomSPEEDY!
So what do I have to do to join the rest of the Broadband
world? Just call Telkom and they’ll sign you up.
So there’s no catch to this at all? Weeelllllllllllll.
Ok, there are two small little catches. Number one is
that it is not available everywhere in Bali yet. Kuta;
Sanur; Dusa Dua – down in that area. Not in Ubud
yet, I’m sorry to say. The second catch is that
it’s new. Which means there may be bugs; downtime;
maintenance, etc. But, it is cheap and it is fast
and it is convenient and it is here in Bali, NOW!
So PLEASE DO THIS: not matter where you live, call Telkom
and ask about TelkomSpeedy! If they do not have
it in your area, ask them how soon it will be available in
your area. The more people that call them, the faster
they’ll get it into your area!
Here’s what this speed means to you and me, in real
terms, forget all the numbers. Say you’re downloading
some music using uTorrent and isohunt.com. You’ve found
the latest Coldplay album and it’s about 70MB long for
the entire thing. In the ‘old days’ with
a dialup, it would take about 7 hours! (Not counting
any hang ups and redials.) With your new TelkomSpeedy,
it’s done in under 2 hours!
What are the alternatives? Not many good or cheap, I’m
afraid. You can use the good ‘ol dial-up. But, it can
be maddening. You dial up one time and it’s a 50 Kbps
connection and the next time only 28. Sometimes the
line is busy and you can’t even get in. Sometimes the
line gets dropped and you have to dial in again. Plus it costs
about 10,000 rupiah per hour!
Then there is cable modem but you must have cable TV to use
that and that is only available in a few Bali areas.
Then there is the other Broadband alternative. You contact
a company, they come out and install a 100 foot antennae on
your property (at a cost of about 3-5 million), install some
other radio equipment that you buy or rent, and then you have
a broadband connection. But, the cost is anywhere from
one to three million a month (or more if you want true ADSL
speed).
Now we can join the rest of the (broadband) wired world.
Did you know that if your download speed is fast enough (like
with TelkomSpeedy) you can watch TV shows thru the internet
on your computer? You can download movies that aren’t
available here yet. Get all those albums you’ve
been searching for here! You can even have friends send
you big files like some home movies or pictures they’ve
taken of the family! Yes, all this is possible now in
Bali. And it won’t break your bank in the process.
So, please call Telkom right now. Ask them ‘exactly
when will TelkomSpeedy be available for me?’
