(Telkom)

How much internet does a family unit use within one month? Customers can use the internet from a variety of sources: WiFi, mobile internet, internet cafe (warnet), in-office use, access in places such as hotels and, of course, at home. For personal home internet, a customer usually prefers to subscribe to a fixed internet service or fixed broadband because of the better quality of the internet in terms of speed and stability. Other advantages include the freedom of using various internet-based services with unlimited data. However, despite not applying data quotas, providers of fixed broadband services apply a Fair Usage Policy (FUP). What is meant by FUP and why is it applied?

Fair Usage Policy is a usage policy to protect normal users from excessive internet usage by heavy users. Countries such as the US, Japan and Malaysia have already applied FUP, and so have operators in Indonesia.

Why is FUP needed?

A heavy user is one who abuses the unlimited facilities to, for example, set up an internet cafe (warnet) business or download for the commercialization of pirated films and games. Their usage is therefore disproportionate and can effectively disrupt the fairness and comfort of other users who pay the same tariff. There are even customers who re-sell their internet service to their neighbors. Every one heavy user will disrupt seven normal customers in the international gateway.

The FUP provided by Indihome is very flexible for household usage. As an example, for the 10 Mbps service, Indihome gives fair usage of 300 GB, or equivalent to watching medium definition quality movies for 1800 hours, or approximately 1200 movies. As a comparison, the FUP in Malaysia is 120 GB. For Indihome services, aside from the FUP, the speed is quite good at 7.5 Mbps. Fair usage of 300 GB is not included in the usage of UseeTV. Usage of UseeTV is free from the FUP.

From the trials we've conducted, no customers have complained about the FUP. "The complaints usually came from those who re-sold such as internet cafes and unlicensed mini operators," Telkom consumer director Dian Rachmawan said while smiling kindly. Consumers in general do not need to worry about limitations set by the FUP because it is very loose and internet usage almost never extends beyond the FUP limits.

The fact is based on the Indihome user usage, there are about 99% normal users which will not be impacted by the FUP.

Will FUP limit streaming?

Streaming videos on the internet uses a large amount of bandwidth and will be excessive if the streaming is from servers abroad. For this reason, Telkom is looking to create Video OTT (Over-The-Top) platform, so that streaming will not use customers' FUP at all.

Indihome is a Triple Play service: the first service is the internet, the second is phone and play and the third is the Video UseeTV (hybrid IPTV and OTT). Paid streaming Video-on-Demand such as Netflix, iFlix, CatchPlay and HOOQ, aside from free streaming such as YouTube, can be viewed on Video UseeTV (the second play). The aforementioned content will ease customer's experience in enjoying a variety of video streaming services other than the content from UseeTV that is already available. At the moment Telkom is developing a hybrid OTT platform aside from the existing IPTV. This service is to be implemented in the second half of 2016. The development of this platform will also save bandwidth from abroad and increase domestic internet traffic.(+)

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