Telkom Officially Commercialize WiFi Corner

Telkom authorized the commercialization of WiFi Corner by launching its two latest services, WiFi Corner (WiCo 2.0) and WiFi Station. The initiation is an attempt to increase internet broadband penetration throughout Indonesia.

Up to this point, WiFi Corner (WiCo) is known to be located in certain places for internet education and commonly in Telkom Plaza. WiCo is relatively affordable to access.

"WiCo 2.0 and WiFi Station is an attempt to develop Indonesia's digital society, along with government vision to make Indonesia as the biggest digital economy power in Southeast Asia," said Dian Rachmawan, Telkom's Enterprise & Business Service Director on Thursday, (12/28).

He explained, WiCo 2.0 is inspired by internet cafe service (warnet) inviting third party as enterprise partner to help the internet penetration. WiCo 2.0 uses a 100% fiber optic backhaul with speed range starts from 100 mbps and signal range of 50 meters.

Partners only need to provide a location and download MyWiCo app to register as user and top up voucher balance. Furthermore, they can directly sell WiFi.id vouchers for internet user to use in particular places.

Through the voucher sale, Telkom implements a 50:50 profit sharing scheme with starting price of Rp3,500 per two hours. Partners can raise prices according to local conditions.

By these vouchers, partners can earn additional income, making it suitable for women to do a home-based business. For voucher payment, can be done using Finpay or scan QR Code.

For next year, Rachmawan targets WiCo 2.0 will be available in 50,000 new locations. So dar, the old version or WiCo 1.0 is available in around 15,000 points throughout Indonesia.

WiFi Station

Unlike WiCo 2.0, WiFi Station is dedicated service for corporate, providing free internet service for its employees or public customers. For instance, cafe, restaurant, school, campus or coworking space. WiFi Station is targeted to be available in 100,000 new locations by next year.

"The company will take care of the cost, so the end user will not be burdened."

WiFi Station features are considered useful for business people. Login ID Customization allowing a secure internet connection, while Welcome Page Customization allowing business people to create a brand image of the business through internet WiFi features. In addition, Customer Profiling feature to improve customer engagement.

For Rachmawan, the presence of these two new products are not opposed to the segment of Indihome users which most likely stayed at home. All three are targeting different users.

Rachmawan's opinion related to the competition with existing player is located in the after sales handling. Telkom has Telkom Akses specialized in providing construction services and network infrastructure management.

"We have subsidiary specialized in handling fiber optic. It is our extra value of other competitors," Rachmawan concluded.

There are several other companies providing similar services to WiFi Station, such as Biznet Hotspot and Google Station. Google partners with CBN and FiberStar brings free internet access in public places. In Indonesia, Google Station is available in Jabodetabek and Bandung.

– Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian