If you happened to read my previous post about internet connection in Indonesia which I wrote around 3 weeks ago, then you should’ve known that right now, I am using Fastnet internet service from Firstmedia. As of now, they own the only cable TV and internet network in Indonesia, they are also the first one to offer unlimited broadband internet with speed ranging from 384Kbps to 3Mbps, and not to mention a very reasonably priced internet service. As of now, they have the best price for internet service in Jakarta, Indonesia.

At Firstmedia, a 384Kbps unlimited internet connection is priced at IDR 99.000 (around USD 10) and that is as cheap an internet connection that you can find in Jakarta at the moment. But in order to subscribe to their internet service, they also require you to be a subscriber of their Cable TV service. With a basic plan priced at IDR 99.000 it brings their most basic plan of internet and cable TV service to a fee of IDR 188.000 (around USD 20) and that is in my opinion, the most reasonably priced internet connection in Jakarta at the moment.

Of course in order to subscribe for their cable TV service (and also their internet service), you have to check whether your place / area is already covered by their growing network. If you live in housing complex or a suburban area in and around Jakarta, chances are your place / area is already connected to their cable network. You can also check via a feature on their website whether your specific place / area are covered by their cable network or not.

I’ve been using their service for several months now, and so far am satisfied with the overall quality of their internet and cable TV service. Other people might have different experiences, but so far all of my co-workers in the office that is also a subscriber of their internet service are satisfied with the overall quality. Just be sure to provide a cable modem if you are planning to use their 384 and 512 Kbps internet connection, because they only provide the modem if you subscribe to their 768Kbps internet connection.

A cable modem cost around IDR 750.000 (around USD 81) if you want to buy them yourself so you can pick your own favorite brand. But if you don’t really care about the brand, you can opt to buy the cable modem from Firstmedia with a discounted price of IDR 450.000 (around USD 49) plus a tax of 10%. I bought my cable modem from Firstmedia myself and so far the modem performed well with no major issues whatsoever.

If your specific area / place is not covered by their cable network yet, you can contact them directly via telephone or web form and ask whether they will expand their network to your place or not. Last I heard they are still expanding their network to cover more area to fulfill their target of 1 million subscribers by the end of next year. You might want to consider using alternative connection such as ADSL from the government owned Telecom company or if you are a mobile person, you can also opt for a 3G (or even 3.5G) connection from major GSM network providers such as Telkomsel, Indosat and Excelcom.

Best wishes and good luck in choosing your internet service provider!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 26th, 2008 at 4:56 am and is filed under Jakarta, Reviews, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.