Telkomsel waives data quota to 3 official COVID-19 sites

Digital telecommunications provider Telkomsel Indonesia will be waiving data quota for customers to three official COVID-19 information sites - www.covid19.go.id, www.infeksiemerging.kemkes.go.id, www.corona.jakarta.go.id. This is done in collaboration with stakeholders the Indonesian Ministry of Health and the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government.

In Indonesia, the government has issued a stay-home notice and work from home measures to members of the public. Schools in Indonesia have also closed for two weeks and the government has ordered remote teaching as authorities aim to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Since mid-March, Telkomsel has recorded a surge in data-based communication traffic reaching around 13%. Setyanto Hantoro, managing director at Telkomsel said that the increase was driven by surge in utilising internet access by customers due to the use of e-learning service applications by students, meeting conference applications by workers and customers seeking updates on the information related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Hantoro, the move to waive off data quota comes as part of Telkomsel’s efforts in continuing to play an active role with all elements of society in overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia. In addition, this is also the telco’s commitment to work side by side with the Indonesian government which came after the Indonesian Ministry of Communication and Information Technology said telco operators play a key role in providing telecommunications and internet services with good capacity and quality of service during the COVID-19 emergency period.

“Telkomsel also hopes, through free data quota for the three official sites, customers will get the latest and reliable information more easily and comfortably, and avoid the circulation of incorrect information or hoaxes about the development of the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia,” Hantoro said, adding that the company will continue to monitor the development of COVID-19, and support joint efforts in protecting Indonesia through this emergency.

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Meanwhile, the telco has introduced two data package options for students to #TerusBelajar (#KeepStudying) at home. The data packages aims to offer free access to various e-learning applications which can be used up to 30 days with a 30GB internet quota. While, employees and professionals who need to #TerusProduktif (#StayProductive)  and maintain agility from home, Telkomsel is providing a cloud-based integrated communication solution that offers a free subscription to access CloudX Meeting for a month. With this solution, video conference meetings or virtual classrooms for up to 100 people can be arranged anywhere and at any time without additional hardware investment and operational expenses.  

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