Doing a bit of research about internet access and broadband internet service provider among four South East Asia countries, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. This research was intended to compare internet access cost in the region, and particularly for residential subscriber.
The parameter is simple, how much you pay for kilo bytes per second (download) speed. To make it an apple to apple comparison, the price is for unlimited download, without quota imposed. And without any taxes, since tax may vary between countries.
The connection speed taken as speed from the ISP to your modem or PC (as stated on the plan provided), not the download speed from sites, since it’s depends on the traffic of the websites itself and the traffic between site servers and ISP servers.
Below is the result of my little research.
Singapore
I am currently living in Singapore, and subscribe to StarHub broadband internet access with 12 Mbps speed. I, with two other flatmates, paying about S$ 56.92 (excluding VAT), or IDR 370,000,00 with exchange rate 1 SGD = IDR 6500, per month. That means I pay about IDR 31/kbps speed/month. This price is fixed for the next two years since you are bound to the contract.
Indonesia
A lot of broadband service provider in Indonesia, but to make it more reasonable, I choose one who provide unlimited download with reliable speed and considered to be more affordable, Fastnet. The table below shows, the rate and connection speed for FastNet subscriber.
|
Product Name |
Speed in kbps |
Cable Modem |
Instalation Fee |
Price |
|
FastNet 384 |
up to 384 kbps |
Not Provided |
Free |
Rp 99.000 |
|
FastNet 512 |
up to 512 kbps |
Not Provided |
Free |
Rp 195.000 |
|
FastNet 768 |
up to 768 kbps |
Provided |
Free |
Rp 295.000 |
|
FastNet 1500 |
up to 1500 kbps |
Provided |
Free |
Rp 595.000 |
|
FastNet 3000 |
up to 3000 kbps |
Provided |
Free |
Rp 1.195.000 |
Fastnet subscriber must pay between IDR 257/kbps/month to IDR 400/kbps/month, depends on the plan they are using.
Malaysia
I don’t know much about Malaysia, but I did some googling and finds the following table. The table is from one of the ISP in malaysia, Giga Broadband – VDSL.
Using current exchage rate of RM 1 = IDR 2,764 (from xe.com). Malaysian that subscribe to Giga pays IDR 179/kbps/month for 2 Mbps plan and IDR 273/kbps/month for 1 Mbps plan.
Philippines
In the Philippines, I also search in google for the ISP that provides broadband access. I pick globelines, without any particular reasons, only because its gives me the clearest definition on their plan.
Wired Broadband Php 995** – offers unlimited broadband connection of up to 1 Mbps Wireless Broadband Php 995** – offers wireless unlimited broadband connection of up to 512 Kbps
Wired Broadband Php 1,995** – offers unlimited broadband connection of up to 3 Mbps
With the current exchange rates of PHP 1 = IDR 205 (xe.com), Globelines subscriber pays IDR 136/kbps/month for 3 Mbps wired broadband and IDR 204/kbps for 1 Mbps wired broadband. As for wireless broadband one must pay IDR 400/kbps/month.
Conclusion,
For residential purpose, the cost for broadband internet access in Indonesia is the highest among four South East Asian countries. Whilst Singapore is the lowest. I don’t really care whether this research is valid or not, but I feel this is a fair comparison.
