Internet providers limited (who to choose)

[cup1981]

Hey all. We are just 20 days away from our return to Indonesia. Everything is set with a house and such, but we are now looking at internet connections. Since it's been seven years since we last lived in Indo, I wanted to get some more recent data from you all.

I will maintain my employment in the U.S. through the internet, so I need a reliable connection. We also plan to use a VPN so we can continue streaming Netflix and online cable package, so I need something with enough speed to handle this. The bad thing is there are only two providers who service my house: IndiHome (Telkom) and IndoSat. BizNet is in Tasikmalaya now, but they are not in our part yet.

We had Telkom Speedy last time, and the connection sucked (to put it nicely), but the satellite connections sucked more, so we were stuck. We are now debating between IndiHome, IndoSat, and cellphone tethering/in-home 4G LTE box. What are your experiences with and opinions on these options?

Thanks!

 

[Jaime C]

We have had IndiHome and the other fiber optic based one whose name isn’t popping into my headright now. I think it’s FirstMedia.

Indihome blocked Netflix then. Even a VPN rarely worked after that. FirstMedia hasn’t blocked Netflix at all.

Just remember that you usually get less than the full speed advertised. 50-75%, and vpns often slow it more.

We are in Bandung, so check with a few neighbors and see what works best. Many companies have 6-12 month deals for signing up.

 

[jstar]

Yeah, the problem is that different regions and areas offer very different results. I know some people who are very happy with their IndiHome.

Luckily IndoSat left that satellite solution for what it was and also went with fiber optic. That Gig product doesn't seem that bad either:



If you have fiber optics solutions, there's no need to go to 4G as main provider at home. And 4G you will have (as prepaid) solutions on your phones anyway so you have a backup. (We need it with FirstMedia on average once per week.)

Talking about 4G: The chances are Telkomsel will be best in your area. In Jakarta IndoSat and XL work very well too.

 

[R Cameron]

If outages are unacceptable for your work, there are routers that can automatically "fallback" to a 4G connection if the main (fiber, etc) service has an outage.

 

[DzulnSiti]

For the past 5 years I have used Indihome. I am on 10Mbps which suite my type of job editing PCB data and transfer to Singapore office. If speed is a concern, fiber is the best and for back the 4G XL Prioritas data plan should have if anything happen to the cables.

 

[dafluff]

Indihome is not bad. I have had it for 4 years now. Yes, they could be better, but it is satisfactory. The speed is within 95% of advertised.

It does occasionally (say once very 2 months) lose connectivity for a few hours. Over the 4 years I have had maybe 3 long outages of over 1 day, and the worst one was about 10 days. I tether my HP as a back-up, and if I get 4G or even H+ it is satisfactory.

That said, indihome varies by local region. If your are is overcapacity, the speeds could drop quite a bit.

As for indihome vs 4G tethering, the latter is going to be much more expensive if you have a lot of data. Indihome's fair use is like 1200GB for my 50 mbps connection, and after that it's supposed to drop to 30 mbps for another 800GB. Never gotten that far. Meanwhile a typical 4G package has a fair use of about 100GB per month.

 

[nosox]

In Ciamis the only choice has been Indihome. I have been pretty happy with my 20Mbps fibre connection. Yesterday while driving around Tasikmalaya we saw that Biznet is available in this area now. Have not checked them out yet, but I know some here have used them

 

[Juggler]

I use Biznet and so far they have been reliable in our area of Berawa. Bonus was that they still operated through out Nyepi

 

[Banana72]

We use Indihome for our office and when it works...it works well. For some reason we had quite a bit of issues with it being offline..maybe it was our area (Tangerang)..Still the internet connection (and reliability) is much better than when I first arrived back in 2011! If they're out...normally it's no longer than a day. Thank goodness. Biznet on the other hand was a nightmare...(our other office used it and we also moved to Indihome after lots of outage lasted 1-2 days in a year).

 

[cup1981]

In Ciamis the only choice has been Indihome. I have been pretty happy with my 20Mbps fibre connection. Yesterday while driving around Tasikmalaya we saw that Biznet is available in this area now. Have not checked them out yet, but I know some here have used them

Yeah, we want Biznet, but our part of Tasikmalaya isn't covered yet . We need to pick up something until they finish installing cable. I am assuming since it will be all all-new cable, we should get a stable connection from Biznet.

 

[cup1981]

I am looking now at 4G services (desperately trying to avoid Indihome) . Has anyone had any success with XL Home Unlimited (the 4G LTE service, not fiber)?

 

[jstar]

desperately trying to avoid Indihome

Bad experience?