Will the Government Hold the Line on Telephones?

(4/3/2006)

As reported on balidiscovery.com [ See: Deadline Looms for Prepaid Phone Card Users], billions of Rupiahs in pre-paid telephone card credits are scheduled to evaporate if consumers continue to ignore the April 28, 2006 deadline for registering their personal details with telephone service providers.

In response to calls from telephone service providers for the Government to delay the looming deadline, security and telecommunication experts are calling for a firm adherence to the rules and all its consequences.

S. Teguh, a telecommunication’s expert based in Bandung, West Java, told the Indonesian language Bisnis Indonesia: "The customers cannot be the sole consideration. The potential burden on the Government and the character of our people must also be considered; the deadline for registration cannot be extended." Teguh explained that if the deadline is extended, the cost to the Government of validating identities of telephone card users will increase. Meanwhile, he added, the tendency of local people to always register at the very last moment when confronted with deadlines cannot become the basis for extending the closing date.

Indosat's Regional Vice President Customer Maintenance, Sonny Adiwijaya, said he is still confident that 100% of the pre-paid cards holders will register by the April 28, 2006 deadline. As of March 20, 2006, only 36.94% of all pre-paid card holders have fulfilled the registration requirements. In real terms, some 31,921,497 pre-paid telephone card holders remained unregistered as of March 20th.