Competition Commission Targets IndiHome Telkom

JAKARTA. After targeted Honda and Yamaha, the Commission for the Supervision of Business Competition (KPPU) is now targeting PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom). Telkom is accused of having committed unhealthy competition through providing IndiHome Triple Play service.

During the first court session, Tuesday (21/2), the investigator team of KPPU accused Telkom of having misused its dominant position in the market of fixed line telephone service. To date, Telkom controls about 99% of fixed line telephone market shares. Therefore, Telkom’s dominance has prevented other companies to penetrate to the fixed line telephone market.

The accusation of KPPU against Telkom was based on the two facts. First, IndiHome is applying covered agreement. Under this agreement, IndiHome provides Indohome Triple Play service, which includes three services, namely fixed line telephone, broadband, and internet protocol television (IPTV) under an inseparable package of service.

In this case, the consumers cannot have option to use one of the services separately, said the Chief of Investigator Team of KPPU M. Noor Rofieq, Tuesday (21/2). This kind of agreement is potentially to eliminate the business opportunities for the competitors, as well as eliminate the alternative service options for the consumers.

Aside of the covered agreement, KPPU also found the evidence of conversations between the consumers and the customer services through Telkom’s telephone service on the line of 147. During the conversations, Telkom’s customer services explained that the consumers could not only subscribe for the fixed line telephone service, as it is under an inseparable package of service.

Based on those evidences, KPPU claimed that Telkom has violated article 15 paragraph 2, article 17, and article 25 paragraph 1 points a and c of Law on the Prohibition of Monopoly and Unhealthy Business Competition.

However, the lawyer of Telkom Muhtar Ali rejected all of the accusations, on the grounds that IndiHome offers Internet Protocol Phone or IP Phone-based service, instead of fixed line-based service. “We will appeal in the next court session. We will review their documents,” he said.

Meanwhile, telecommunication observer Heru Sutadi considered the type of service package as reasonable. Let alone, the fixed line service has used fiber optic networks. Therefore, it will be more useful if the networks are used for other services, instead of being used merely for the telephone service.

According to Heru, KPPU needs to compare IndiHome service with the similar services of other providers in terms of prices. In other words, KPPU needs to compare whether IndiHome provides a lower price of the similar service compared to its competitors. (Muhammad Farid/Translator)