Syahrial Ali's Blog

Research in Motion (RIM)-the producer of the popular BlackBerry smartphone was successfully open their Authorized Repair Facility in Indonesia last week. Indonesian Information and Communication Ministry was happy with that and already approved it but RIM still need to complete their administrative document to receive trade certification.

For your information, Indonesia has blocked the certification procedure of RIM exports into the country in June, due to the absence of after-sales service facilities. Indonesian Telecommunication Telecommunication Regulator has made the inspection and quite satisfied with the facilities.

RIM has tried to fulfill the requirement requested according to the letter No.652/2009 15 Juli 2009 who address to all telecommunication service provider and vendor and importers which are related to RIM commitments for BlackBerry service center.

RIM has made cooperation with PT Teleplan Indonesia to provide local support for repairing for BlackBerry users in Indonesia. The scope of cooperation includes providing the center of repairing in Jakarta and at least 6 service center in all over Indonesia.

Another hot news from Indonesia. Currently there is a Blackberry booming in Indonesia.  Many middle and higher class people now bring their own blackberry, not only people who already familiar with e-mail, but also new comers with internet along with email and chat.

For your information, Blackberry is a smartphones integrated with software that enables access to a variety of data and communication services. BlackBerry provides a solution for wireless email with push-mail technology which enable executives and ordinary employees to send and receive email instantly from their mobile. This service uses GPRS network so that it can be used while in the country or abroad as long as there is a roaming agreement with that operator.

Blackberry services in Indonesia was pioneered by the Indosat a few years ago, and now another 2 big operators, Telkomsel and XL have provided Blackberry services. Telkomsel even give big surprise by giving the Blackberry service for the prepaid customer, contrast with other operators which only serve postpaid customer.

Up to the end of 2008, the number of  Blackberry customers from Indosat was about 300,000 customers, and it is targeted to reach 400,000 customers by the end of 2009. Meanwhile, the Telkomsel Blackberry customer was 35,000, 75% of them are postpaid customer. XL customers was about 25,000 and was targeted to reach 100,000 by the end 2009. As can be seen, Indosat is the leader in providing Blackberry services in Indonesia.

As the number of Blackberry increases sharply, so as  the internet connectivity.  So, you may say it with Blackberry. Happy emailing.