Internet / Cell Service in Bali (Kuta)

[catalan0]

Hey. Is there anyone out there from Bali (preferably in or near Kuta near the beach) that has any experience with Internet service and/or cell service?

I am a work at home individual that would need to have reliable internet 95%+ uptime and speeds fast enough to service Skype, etc for conference calls back to the US. I do have Indonesian 1800#s I can call into to get to my conference calls if that helps at all? I was thinking I could settle for a slower internet connection if they have landline or cell service? How is the cell service for normal phone calls? What are the prices like?

Is there any mobile data service available yet that allows a laptop to use internet over the cell towers?

I may be coming in a few days but need to confirm availability of these services before I purchase my plane ticket. Any information is appreciated. Sorry for all the questions... I've never been to Indo before.

-Matt

[Mas Fred]

If it's a home internet service, Speedy is easily fast enough for video calls.
An 'office' package allowing unlimited 24 hour downloads is Rp750,000/month + tax. It will run at sub 1mbps and often half of that.
I use Indosat for mobile internet. I get GPRS speeds here in the middle of no where and that will run skype but not at good quality and no chance of video.
If you are in a place covered by their broadband that gets faster but not great and will run skype.
It's cost Rp100,000/month with a 2 gig download limit.

The mobile (cell) operators are cheap and all have a 01000 or whatever prefix for cheap international calls but it's not that great and you do get a lot of dropped calls. Of late I have been using '3' network. That is very cheap but has been far more reliable than the others. Also easier for incoming calls to get through from abroad. The downside is that the coverage isn't anything to shout home about but in bigger towns and cites it's fine.

[catalan0]

I have a toll free number I use for work and the company gives me a number to dial from any country in the world. For Indonesia it starts with 001 803...

Can anyone tell me if I brought my own GSM cell phone and bought a pre-paid SIM when I arrived, would I be able to call that toll free # without it affecting my minutes? I'm assuming it does use my minutes. Do you think a hotel would let me call that number without a charge? If there was a charge how much do you think it would be for an hour of talking? What about the Wartels?

Thanks for any info.

[marcus]

I don't know specifically of Bali , but I suppose , as we have here in Bandung , you will also find there plenty of internet services : through cell towers (GSM and CDMA) , through phone lines (dial-up and ADSL) , through cable-TV , .. . Take a look at telkomsel.com and indosat.com (the 2 bigger cell operators) and telkom.co.id for fixed line . I use Telkom's Speedy (ADSL) for my VOIP calls (but never for conference) . Although cheap , reliability may be a problem in all systems . I don't know but I suppose you will be charged when calling a US toll free number from Indonesia . Some hotels and shopping centers may offer free WiFi internet access . You can use justvoip.com to call a US landline number for almost free . There may be many wartels/warnets available also .