Just a quick update. As I wrote in this blog two months ago about which operator will bring Apple's iPhone 3G to Indonesia, at least there are two possibilities:
First, the country's biggest operator, Telkomsel, will offer the iPhone to its customers. Telkomsel is a state-owned company, with 35 percent of its stake owned by Singapore giant SingTel. As reported earlier, SingTel and its mobile associates will bring Apple Inc's popular iPhone to Singapore, India, Australia and the Philippines later this year. And probably, according to my opinion, it will bring this to Indonesia also.
Second, Hutchison will team up with Apple to offer the iPhone. The telecom company operates mobile phone services in Hong Kong, Thailand, Israel, Macau, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Vietnam. So, Indonesia will be its next logical step to offer the iPhone.
But it seems Telkomsel, which has more than 50 million users now, will win the bid rather than Hutchison. According to a colleague who works close to the operator: "Telkomsel will offer iPhone 3G here. It's almost confirmed."
He told me: "Telkomsel will offer the iPhone to its postpaid customers. Now they are working on how to determine the plan that will be offered to the customers."
As we know, the country's cellular market relies on the prepaid customers, so the iPhone 3G should be attached to the postpaid mechanism.
I tried to confirm this with one of the Telkomsel execs, but he just smiled and said: "We pray for this."
http://asia.cnet.com/blogs/toekangit/post.htm?id=63005207&scid=rvhm_ms