Yet another phone operator

Several days ago I got a starter pack issued by a wireless phone company named Axis from a friend of mine. At first I only wanted to try this brand new Indonesian cellular operator, but now I'm using it to set up an internet connection in my room.

Axis gives free internet access for its users until the end of this month, after that, I heard the GPRS based internet access will be charged Rp.1/kB. A quite competitive price compared to another GPRS services in Indonesia. I hope it learns from past experience concerning GPRS. Some years ago, IM3, a mobile phone operator had a problem with billing. It happened to their prepaid, a pay-first-use-later style. The problem was, some numbers with empty credit still could use the GPRS features and downloading tons of stuffs from the internet. it couldn't be used to call, sending messages and other standard features but GPRS. User's credit balance went to negative value because of the data transferred via GPRS. Since it was prepaid card, after the error was found, users just discarded their old SIM card with negative balance and ought a new one, in short they don't bother to pay the GPRS and change their number. As a result, the cost was fully on IM3's shoulders.

I had some troubles setting my connection. After almost killing myself (really) I could finally connect to the outside-the-shell world. Unfortunately, this test drive doesn't give me good impression yet, mainly because of its connection speed, too slow for my liking. Even if it's free forever, I'd rather have paid for decent connection with acceptable rate.

Note: This post was moved from my other blog.