Indonesia not yet to regulate Messaging Applications from Operator

Ilustrasi (dok)

JAKARTA (IndoTelko) - The Indonesian government has not been keen to set up messaging applications as reported by a number of operators in the 4G era.

"I know there are some operators have launched messaging applications similar to WhatsApp or Line in the 4G era. But, if it is running on a data network, we have not set it yet. This is a form of creativity that runs above the data, together with applications players such as WhatsApp," said Indonesian Communication and Informatics Technology Rudiantara.

In welcoming the 4G era, number of carriers have launched messaging application that is able to send communication messages, voice calls, video calls, location sharing and to share documents in a large size.

XL will launch its XLRCS, Bolt! Has come up with Bolt!Talk. While Telkomsel will create VoLTE with Huawei. The interesting thing from the operator's messaging application is the virtual number that allows making voice calls among fellow users. The operators are also planning to make it cross-operator calls in the future.  

The Over the Top (OTT) players are not standing still from such action by modifying the service provider to be able to adapt to a lightweight network bandwidth. This action has been carried out by WhatsApp and Line.

WhatsApp makes the latest updates that can save costumer's calling credits by choosing voice calls without costing much of the data (low data usage-calling).

Misguided
Furthermore Rudiantara also said that there have been a misguiding among the people over the voice and messaging application features that are considered as free.

"Your internet data quota is reduced while you are making a phone call using WhatsApp aplication. That means you still pay per call. Why do you use WhatsApp if it only to make local calls, it is actually cheaper using regular call. Moreover the interconnection tariff would be corrected shortly,” he said.

Rudiantara said that there are no regulations in the world about the interconnection of data services that will be difficult to manage messaging applications when running in the cross-operator. "I think the current methods is the sender keep all (SKA) as SMS (short messages service)," Rudiantara said.

Separately, Committee Member of the Indonesian Telecommunications Regulatory Body (BRTI) I Ketut Prihadi Krishna plans to study the regulation about the procedures to establish the data service rates in 2016.

Krishna explained that this ordinance only set formula any components that need to be calculated when the telecommunications company customer service put on the Internet. Its direction will be like a tariff formula for basic telephony services includes telephone (voice) and text messaging (SMS). If the way the Internet has made the determination of rates, tariffs are expected to minimize the gap.

Earlier, Chairman of the Association of Telecommunications organizers Indonesia (ATSI) Alexander Rusli acknowledged that the data rates rebalancing in order to maintain the quality of services and reinvestment in technology. "Data Rates in Indonesia should be revitalized. Now about USD 0.05 per Kb," he said.

However, in the midst of efforts to revitalize the data rates, the consumers said another thing. It was seen from the online petition titled "Internet For People: Save @Telkomsel @KemenBUMN @kemkominfo," which has gained more than five thousand supports.

This petition has strongly criticized on zoning tariff policy of Telkomsel's data services which made user outside of Java to pay more expensive than Java.(es)