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TELKOMSEL bekerjasama dengan Apple menghadirkan iPhone 3G di Indonesia dalam waktu dekat

 

Telkomsel today announced it has signed an agreement with Apple to bring iPhone 3G to Indonesia in the coming months

 

Update 10:47 a.m: Indonesia now listed under Now Available (strangely Thailand has gone back to Coming Soon) http://www.apple.com/iphone/countries/

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Yet another Indonesian iPhone 3G news broke via Twitter

@yonan32 discovered last night that Telkomsel is now accepting orders for iPhone 3G. Unfortunately it seems that it currently is only available for limited market only as the order form on Telkomsel's website requires you to enter a particular ID. I'm still finding out what NIK CSDM means. It's likely to mean identity number for employees or privileged customers.

Why they chose to do it this way is as yet unknown but it does reflect the rumors that Telkomsel was going to release the iPhone 3G in mid-January internally before going public in February. Very likely that this is their method of testing iPhone 3G in a more public way. Another theory is that Telkomsel may not be selling it publicly at all and that this is only a corporate roll out? Yeah right.

Update 10:18 a.m: and now the entire Telkomsel website is down (or very very slow)

Update 10:25 a.m: @noitusan let me know that to register for iPhone pre-order you can also call 111 from a Telkomsel Halo number

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Thanks to @deon who alerted his entire Twitter follower base.

Apple Online Store Indonesia now has iPhone 3G placeholder. Clicking on the Find a store link will take you to an iPhone 3G preparation page. Following last week's launch in Thailand, it leaves Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar and East Timor in the South East Asian region. Singapore and The Philippines are among the early wave of iPhone 3G countries in late 2008.

   

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Just as a reference, here's a plan breakdown for the cheapest 8GB iPhone plan under AT&T in case you're still caught up in that whole, "But it costs only $199!".

$199.00 up front (8GB)

$30.00 unlimited data plan per month (compulsory)
$39.99 450 minutes per month (unused portion rolled over to next period)
$5.00 200 sms per month (without this plan SMS is charged at $0.20 per message which is insanely expensive)

Total minimum per month: $74.99
Total minimum across 24 months: $199 + $1799.76

Don't forget tax.

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Again, our friends at Gadnix came forward with more news regarding iPhone 3G in Indonesia.

The blog let it slip that iPhone 3G in Indonesia will be rolled out one step at a time with exclusive package similar to Telkomsel Halo Prioritas, so select customers may get first dibs on the hottest phone of 2008 this month followed by a more public roll out in February.

Gadnix speculates that the phone will be sold at Rp. 9 million (US$800) but did not elaborate whether it is for the 8GB or 16GB version, only that customers should be able to choose between a one year and a two year plan.

The source of the prolonged delay seems to be the difference in opinion between Apple and Telkomsel regarding the implementation of a subscription plan. Local telcos have attempted to sell phones under a network-locked plan for a number of years now without success. It is understandable that even the largest mobile telco would be apprehensive about locking customers to a long term contract. It is only in the last two years that a mobile connection contract becomes the slightest bit acceptable among customers but even this is not through mobile phone plans.

Before the iPhone comes out however, Telkomsel will launch Blackberry Curve 8900 a.k.a the Javelin.

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It's practically a foregone conclusion that Telkomsel, Indonesia's largest mobile telecommunications provider will carry iPhone 3G for the Indonesian market. Some of its other sister telcos already are selling iPhones in their respective countries; SingTel in Singapore, Bharti AirTel in India, Optus in Australia and Globe in the Philippines. Early rumors pegged the Indonesian release period for September 2008 but the month came and went with no peep out of anyone and no sign of the hottest phone in the market being released officially. Private imports and non-official iPhone 3G's and even older iPhones are selling like hot cakes regardless.

The latest news to hit the web is that Telkomsel, after several apparent delays, will launch iPhone 3G in January or February, in other words, Q1 2009. Now make note that Gadnix, the source of this news have not been around for very long but the site is staffed by veteran bloggers in the mobile phone world who used to write for 3G Week.  

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