It’s a common knowledge that calling long distance from Jakarta to Surabaya or vice versa is expensive. Long distance phone tariff in Indonesia is very expensive and very confusing. There are many cellular operators in Indonesia, and each of their prices are different. As a common rule, the long distance tariff per minutes is 2100 (two thousand one hunder per minutes) rupiah . That’s quite expensive. As a result, many mobile phone users in Indonesia have more than one SIM card. Everyone want to take advantage on the cheap on-net calling (i.e: Indosat to Indosat, or XL to XL). In this article, we would like to explain five ways to save money on your long distance phone bills in Indonesia.
- If you already have the Indihome triple play service from Telkom, this would be the cheapest way possible. With this triple play package, you can get super fast internet with fiber optic connection. You also get paid TV channels, and telephone calling package for local and long distance for 1000 minutes per month. That’s like getting 2.1 million rupiah worth of long distance calling for only 300,000 rupiah per month. That’s a super deal. You don’t have to worry about nasty phone bill surprise at the end of the month. What’s the catch? You have to pay that bill whether you make the call or not. It becomes part of your monthly expense. If you’re paying about 300,000 rupiah per month for internet, this can certainly be a consideration for you. It’s a saving of 100% from regular Telkom tariff.
- If you have a Telkomsel mobile phone number, you can call PSTN long distance for a very cheap price. How do you do that? Just send “PSTN” to 8999, and you can call friends and family for 1000 rupiah for around twelve minutes. This is a savings of 95% over regular Telkom tariff. What if 12 minutes is not enough? It’s easy, just send “PSTN” multiple times before each phone call.
- If you have a home/office phone (PSTN), you can also call to 021-5015-8585 and use the Room ID that you get through our website. At the same time, your friends / colleagues in Surabaya also need to call the Surabaya phone number (031-2115-8585), and enter the same Room ID. After that, the two of you can talk with each other by phone. With this methodology, you only have to pay 3750 rupiah for half an hour call, and your friends / family also have to pay 3750 rupiah for half an hour call. This is a savings of 90% from regular phone tariff. You also can get more people to join in the call because you’re not limited to only two people. To learn more on how to use conference call, click the following link.
- If you have an android or iphone, you can download ESIAtalk application. This is the latest service from Bakrie Telecom which just recently launched in late March 2015. After you download this application, you can select a virtual phone number (in city of your choices). Then, you need to refill prepaid credit on your new virtual phone number. After you fill the credit, you can buy the package (the cheapest starts from 20 thousands rupiah for 50 minutes of local calling). With this option, you can save 81% over regular Telkom tariff. What are the requirements for using this application? You need to have good internet connection – whether through 3G or Wifi. Without good internet, your voice will sound choppy, because this service is VoIP service (Voice over the Internet).
- If you have a post paid Telkomsel mobile phone (Kartu Halo), you can visit Grapari and ask to subscribe “PSTN Topping.” The monthly cost is 30,000 (thirty thousand rupiah) per month, and you can get 50 minutes per month. With this way, you can call any home phone users (whether local or long distance) and save 71% from Telkomsel regular tariff. Goodbye nasty surprise at the end of your billing cycle.
That’s all the tips we have for saving money on phone calls from Jakarta to Surabaya and vice versa. See you on our next article. Have a productive day.