Imagine this: You are in the middle of your favorite TV program, or more seriously, finishing a job for tomorrow morning when suddenly the prepaid electricity at your home runs out.

Instead of getting mad and panicky or rushing to the closest outlet selling electricity tokens or vouchers, you can now just resume your activities in minutes by simply pressing a few keys on your
cell phone.

So when you have such an experience, that is, your electricity suddenly cutting off in the middle of the night, there is no need to panic as it’s now easy to buy a token very late at night when you’re a subscriber of Telkomsel Cash or T-Cash, the innovative e-wallet service from PT Telkomsel, Indonesia’s largest cellular operator.

What you need to do in such a situation is to simply send an SMS to buy a certain value of token. It’s so simple, and in minutes, the electricity in your home will be back on.

An abbreviation of electronic wallet, also known as digital wallet, the service allows users to make electronic commerce transactions quickly and securely. It functions much like a physical wallet and has evolved into a service that provides users with a convenient way to store and use online shopping.

Buying a token for prepaid electricity (KWH) via T-Cash is only one example of the value-added services Telkomsel offers its subscribers. With the service, users no longer need to queue at an ATM or visit a payment counter as they can simply send an SMS from anywhere from their cell phone to top up their electricity meters. After sending an SMS, they will get a notification, an SMS acknowledged as a valid payment receipt by state-owned electricity company PLN.

To get the T-Cash service, Telkomsel users can register by sending an SMS to *828*1#. They can then cash in at several T-Cash merchants, including GraPARI and the Indomaret retail chain.

Subscribers can also buy electricity tokens if they have credit in their accounts.

Purchasing an electricity token is simple. A subscriber with a PLN meter number who wants to buy a Rp 20,000 token, can send an SMS to 2828 by typing PAY PLNPRA <meter number> 20000. The subscriber will then get a notification SMS to confirm the procurement. After sending a confirmation SMS, the subscriber will get a success notification SMS containing the purchased token value, a reference number and the token code. For postpaid electricity payment, customers type an SMS to number 2828 with the contents of PLN PAY <CustomerIDNumber><PIN T-Cash> .

Being the first payment transaction feature applied to a cellular service in Indonesia, T-Cash also offers convenience to its users when they want to buy tickets from national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia.

With this contactless technology, it’s now easier to buy Garuda tickets via cell phone, meaning no hassle of a waiting room or lining up at an ATM. Users will still need to make a phone reservation with Garuda’s call center. After getting a booking code for a ticket, a user sends an SMS for the procurement. Just type “Pay Garuda <booking code> <T-Cash PIN>” and send it to 2828. The user will then get a notification with a detailed payment amount and then send another SMS for confirmation.

After sending the confirmation SMS, the user will get a notification confirming success of the transaction, which functions as a receipt to get the physical ticket at a Garuda e-ticket counter.

The convenience of this mobile payment method has been well prepared by Telkomsel, which first launched it in November 2007. As an innovative service turning a cell phone into an electronic wallet, T-Cash functions just like digital cash and is for transactions of up to Rp 5 million with an easy, fast and secure platform.

With T-Cash, Telkomsel subscribers can make many transactions, like buying vouchers to top up their cell phones and PLN tokens, paying Telkomsel postpaid kartuHALO bills, cable TV provider TelkomVision, PLN and state-owned regional water utility PDAM, and using it to pay at participating merchants. Users can also use T-Cash for cash transfers, allowing them to send and receive money quickly via their cell phones, which is very convenient, especially for those who do not have bank accounts and are far from any bank. Just access *828#.

Bank Indonesia, the country’s central bank, has granted a license for the T-Cash service, which currently has more than 260 partners across the archipelago offering various products and services (Indomaret, Tokobagus.com, Fuji Image Plaza, Universities featuring academic contents and others).

There are now more than 7,000 T-Cash sales points from Aceh to Papua.

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