Tag: XL Axiata

XL Axiata pulled its iPhone 5S/C price page

Last night I was tipped that XL Axiata had published its iPhone 5S/C pricing schemes. Suspecting that it was leaked early, I took screenshots and published both the link and the shot. I was later informed that it was indeed leaked and a few hours later the page was taken down.

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Apparently people at XL hadn’t realized the page was already published so it looked like that they scrambled as quick as they could late Saturday night to remove the page, probably gave it a different URL instead of taking it down completely.

As I said last night, the pricing plans for postpaid are almost identical to the US pricing which is excellent but the prepaid prices were a big step up. Turns out, the they were about 25% higher which I suppose isn’t too bad but is shocking nonetheless because it brings the 5S very close into MacBook Air territory.

The Rupiah’s fall against the greenback is perhaps the biggest contribution to the high prepaid prices (although if you go with the postpaid option, the total cost of ownership after 12 months would be within the same ballpark) and if the exchange rate had remained in the 9500-10500 per dollar, I’m sure the iPhones would be a bit more affordable.

Something in my head tells me that this was a set up though. That I was leaked the page specifically to gauge reaction to the prices. It just so happened that the tip came after I had tweeted asking whether people would buy an iPhone 5S if it were to start at Rp 9 million for prepaid. It ended up being 10.5 million and the 5C started at 8.7 million.

Will XL make changes now that it’s all been leaked?

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Update: it’s live, no change

– Read on Path.

Until April 2013, XL Axiata had a perfectly fine working mobile site which is meant to be used for mobile users to access their mobile accounts, check up on their usage quota, find out card expiry date and validity period, top up their credits, and purchase various data, voice, and text packages.

Sometime in the last week or so they changed the site to something that is not only downright unusable, useless, rubbish, a complete and utter mess, it is also entirely mobile hostile. Accessing this from Chrome on Android, which is among the best mobile browsers available, and is on a significant share of smartphones in this country, produces the above brilliant pieces of horse manure.

Don’t they test these sites on all the major mobile browsers before they go live?

Telkomsel and XL Axiata begin selling iPhone 4S in Indonesia today

Today Indonesia’s Telkomsel and XL Axiata will begin selling the iPhone 4S. In a departure from past pricing plans, this time each telco has markedly distinct packages and even different pre-paid costs. Additionally, there is approximately a 10% increase over the cost of past iPhones while in the US it has remain the same since 2008 for every iPhone model.

Previously outright cost of iPhone 4 used to be Rp 7 million and Rp 8.2 million for the 16 GB and 32 GB respectively. The iPhone 4S now start from Rp 7.7 million for the 16 GB all the way to Rp 10.3 million for the 64 GB.

The 4S being released in January may seem a little late compared to the December release of the iPhone 4 in 2010 but one needs to remember that it wasn’t until mid October last year that Apple began selling the 4S in the US, so now Indonesia is only four months behind instead of six or more. The 3G was released in March 2009 and the 3GS in February 2010.

As for the pricing plans, here are the packages from Telkomsel. The lack of contract plans in Indonesia means buyers are given the choice of 12 month credit card installments or full price purchase.

The included free calls and SMS are intra-network only, meaning they apply only within the same network, not to numbers from other mobile network providers as per local regulations.

It’s very likely that as it had been in the past, post-paid packages are valid for pre-approved customers only as new Telkomsel iPhone customers are generally directed towards pre-paid options.

Pre-paid customers have a new daily plan to choose from which limits them to 60 MB data consumption per day. Previously all packages had been monthly.

XL Axiata’s iPhone plans are different as well this year. In addition to the three 12-month credit card installment plans and the option for outright purchase, the blue network now offers six-month credit card installment plans for pre-paid customers. The total costs of the pre-paid installment plans differ very slightly from the full up-front purchase price which makes it quite an attractive option.

At the conclusion of the installment period, customers are enrolled automatically to a 1.2 GB monthly data package with the standard call and text rates. Excess call/text/data are charged at prevailing rates.

[update] 

Forgot to include pre-paid costs for iPhone 4S on XL Axiata. They are 16GB Rp 7,999,000; 32GB Rp 9,199,000; 64GB Rp 10,399,000

Personal hotspot use is included in the data packages of both Telkomsel and XL Axiata.

Telkomsel does not bundle voice/text/data packages for its pre-paid plans while XL Axiata does.