Ramadan will be here in less than a week. The holy month for Muslims is also a sort of celebration for telco companies in Indonesia. Most of big players offer special services and programs during the fasting month, aiming to win customer loyalty and, with any luck, more revenue.
Telkomsel, Indosat, XL, Axis and Bakrie Telecom (Esia) have all prepared their network capability to handle the traffic increase. XL is reportedly adding 100 base transceiver stations (BTS) to anticipate the congestion during Ramadan and Eid. Meanwhile Telkomsel plans to operate 200 mobile BTS in several areas to ensure its network reliability.
Most operators provide various religious content during Ramadan to accomodate users’ need for data service. Users can access this content by using a command service code from the operator. For example, Indosat customers only need to dial *123# and Axis customers can dial *789# to get Ramadan content. Although it’s not as high-tech as most mobile internet content, this simple and user-friendly procedure is very popular among Indonesians.
Even though data services continue to grow, customers still find voice and short message service (SMS) very convenient. Axis seems very enthusiastic to grab this opportunity by launching a free-of-charge voice calls and SMS promotion from midnight to 6am. One such TV commercial for promo can be seen here:
Interestingly, the SMS message is the star of this annual celebration. Telkomsel recorded 809 million SMS messages sent at the end of Ramadan last year. Outside Ramadan, the company’s message traffic peaked at 727 million SMSs sent. Indosat also claimed its SMS traffic reached 532 million messages, increasing significantly compared with ordinary days traffic where it sees only 375 million. The same phenomena happens across all operators as Muslims send Eid Mubarak greetings to families, friends, and relatives.
More Revenue?
Despite the traffic surge during Ramadan and especially during Eid, there’s no guarantee of increased revenue. As reported by Indonesia Finance Today, operators’ revenue can fluctuate from time to time.
Even so, excitement and optimism still surrounds all operators as Indonesians utilize mobile phones during Ramadan. From sending SMS, calling friends or family, to browsing from a mobile phone — all have become a powerful way to forget hunger and thirst during the day. But whether operators’ revenue will increase or not, it’s not for us to say. We’ll have to wait and see when after the celebration is over.
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