Job Discussion Forums

Imdramayu · Joined: 09 Feb 2007 Posts: 394 Location: South Korea

Do most people in Indonesia have home phones (landlines)? I want to keep in touch with an Indonesian friend who is going back soon. My friend says they have no home phone and no way to be called. They can only call me. Thios sounds strange. Do even poor people in Indonesia (like in Indramayu) have home phones? Is my friend hiding from me?

tanyakenapa · Joined: 06 Feb 2007 Posts: 180 Location: Batavia

Yes people in Indramayu will have home phones, however if they live in a remote village out of the main town area they probably wont, as there probably arent any cables connecting it to a network.

However people who live just on the outskirts of Jakarta, dont have home phones as well, my friend who lives in Cikarang, in the Industrial complex are surrounded by offices with phones, but in the small housing complex that she lives in, they havent got phone cables yet. So it really doesnt make sense either.

guruengerish · Joined: 28 Mar 2004 Posts: 424 Location: Australia

Many homes do not have fixed phones, as there is a very long waiting list. Also, the charges are high.

The land-line section used to be rife with corruption, charge extraordinary high prices for inter-local calls and even worse for overseas calls.

When Hand Phones (HP) became readily available, these became the norm, and most people seem to have one.

The charging is a bit different to other countries, and the phone SIM card is issued for one particular city. If you travel to another city, you are charged long-distance rates, even if the person you call is one street away.

Some folk have different SIM cards for each city, if they travel a lot.

However, the handphone is by far the most economical, and of course, a quick SMS is cheap.

hairyrambutan · Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 11:47 pm Post subject:

Most people in Indonesia do not have any money so do not have any kind of telephone.

Fixed lines are rarer than mobile phones. Indonesia got off to a very late start with fixed line telephony and was still catching up when the influx of affordable mobile phones began to nullify the need to do so.

Many maids, nannies and their charges have better mobile phones than English teachers.

malu · Joined: 22 Apr 2007 Posts: 1344 Location: Sunny Java

I know I'm a suspicious and miserable old scrote, but if someone told me that they had no phone and there was no way to contact them, I might assume that a strong hint was being given to leave well alone. Especially if the interlocutor was female and returning to her family.

Atoms for Peace · Joined: 06 Feb 2006 Posts: 135 Location: NKRI

Atomic Wedgie · Joined: 02 May 2008 Posts: 4

There are only about 25 million or so landlines in Indonesia. With a population of over 250 million that says a lot. Also just think about how many out of that 25 million belong to businesses - are not house phones. Although I will say that even your poorer Indonesians have access to cheap cell phones and you should be able to get a hold of them. Whether or not that person wants you to get a hold of them is debatable (no offense but it does sound a bit fishy).

wannaBguru · Joined: 07 Dec 2005 Posts: 110

it cost about 1 million rupiah to install a new phone in a house. the phone number is assigned to that house, unlike other countries where u can choose or change your number. the problem with this is that if someone else previously rented/owned the house and left an outstanding bill, u have to pay this bill before u can get the service re-connected.

it is cheaper and easier to just buy a second hand phone and pay as u go.

i agree with malu. usually women that make "friendships" with foreigners dont want to give their number because their boyfriend or husband will find out. but they want to be able to call u with various excuses for needing money......... my younger brother needs money for school, my parent is sick and needs medicine, etc. indramayu is basically a collection of kampungs and few people have home phones, but if she isnt giving your her handphone number, it may mean that she has someone in her life.

guruenglish is a little wrong. previously all sim cards were issued to a specific city and you would incure roaming charges when travelling to another city. but this proved unpopular. now most numbers, such as mentari, are nationwide numbers and cost the same no matter where in indoneisa u are. the main difference in phones services are gsm (3G) and CDMA.

Imdramayu · Joined: 09 Feb 2007 Posts: 394 Location: South Korea

Thanks for feedbacking me. Will a mobile phone purchased in Doha work in Imdramayu (or anywhere in Indonesia)? Is it easy to buy a SIM card?

Putting your fears at rest: Let me explain the situation.

My friend is a housemaid from Imdramayu. She is returning soon to Indonesia for summer vacation (we're paying airfare, don't worry). I'm changing jobs so I don't know my new phone number. I want to contact her in September to arrange for her to return.

She says she has no phone. But I'm gonna mail a letter to the address on her Indonesia ID card. Hopefully, this is the address of her family so they will return a letter with the phone number. She says she wants to return. She says her family in Indonesia are poor rice farmers and they need her to work overseas. She can't read or write even in her own language so this may be the best kind of job for her. It's good we can help her out. She has a good heart and is a good worker so we want to continue to employ her.

rayman · Joined: 24 May 2003 Posts: 427

reddrake · Joined: 04 Apr 2008 Posts: 47 Location: Riyadh

If you are from Doha...i suggest get a new SIM card in Indonesia, although some international SIM cards can be use in Indonesia but the cost is really high.

And actually these days, people use only 1 card everywhere because the most of the SIM card these days will not charge you for roaming anymore, unless you take the card outside Indonesia.

And yes, still many people in Indonesia, especially in rural areas, still don have landline. For example, my in law's driver has a cellphone but his house is so deep in village that they don have telkom lines there.

jondeg · Joined: 30 May 2007 Posts: 27

Maybe you can get her to check if you can call her on her neighbour landline. My neighbour whose has husband work in UEA has no landline at her home, however, her husband always called to our number whenever he want to talk with her ( although we did not live in kampung ).
Most Village people do that, they will help each other in case of emergency. Perhaps head of Village offices number.
Hope this will help.

Imdramayu · Joined: 09 Feb 2007 Posts: 394 Location: South Korea

Our housemaid says she only uses a waltel to communicate with others. I gave her an extra mobile phone and want her to use it in Indonesia and buy a SIM card. How much is a SIM card in Indonesia?

Her English is so-so. I hope she understands.

rayman · Joined: 24 May 2003 Posts: 427

Sim cards can be bought for Rp20 000 (about $2) which includes credit of Rp10 000.

Imdramayu · Joined: 09 Feb 2007 Posts: 394 Location: South Korea

I gave our housemaid a mobile phone to take back to Indonesia. I hope it works there. I thought there was different mobile communicating system there.

Anyhow...I hope she doesn't sell the mobile phone for money (it's a 5-year-old Sony Ericson mobile phone). Is there a thriving market for used mobile phone in Imdramayu?

Now all I need to do is impress upon her to buy the SIM card and call me with her new number.

Through all of this, I'm using my Bahasa-English dictionary almost everyday.