What is Elon doing in Bali?
Arriving stylishly in a G550 Gulfstream Jet — as any billionaire should — Elon Musk landed in Bali yesterday to attend the 10th triennial World Water Forum held in Indonesia’s Island of The Gods. But it was not sustainable access to water that particularly interested him in this trip; having humorously admitted to the Indonesian press — “I do not know that much about water…”
Instead, Musk’s attendance was in the spirit of providing sustainable internet access to the remote areas of Indonesia through his internet satellite constellation company Starlink.
The press conference was held in a humble public health center (locally called puskesmas) located in East Denpasar’s village of Sumerta Kelod. Out of the roughly 10,000 public health centers across Indonesia; 2,700 have poor access to the internet, whilst an additional 700 go about their daily operations without internet access at all.
In addition to providing internet access to remote areas of the archipelago, Starlink is also introducing its internet packages to the high-end residential and commercial market. Little have been written on the actual quality of Starlink’s product offerings, but plenty have expressed concern on the inordinate price point.
Although Musk’s press conference in Bali was very humble by any standards, his product offerings are anything but.
The residential package for individual households is priced at IDR 750,000 per month. Customers must also purchase a hardware device costing IDR7,800,000 that is to be installed on one’s roof.
According to the Indonesian Internet Service Provider Association (APJII), roughly two thirds (67.4%) of Indonesian households cough up between IDR100,000 — IDR300,000 for their monthly internet bill. One fifth (22.5%) pay between IDR300,001 — IDR500,000 per month, and only one in a hundred households (1.1%) pay above IDR500,000 per month. Starlink’s monthly offer of IDR 750,000 is therefore only accessible to a miniscule slice of the current household market, and at least more than twice the price of what the majority of Indonesian households are currently paying.
Internet packages also vary in terms of the user’s mobility. Land travelers — such as people travelling in RVs and caravans — can access Starlink’s services for IDR990,000 per month along with the additional IDR 7,800,000 VSAT hardware (presumably to be installed somewhere on top of the automobile). The Maritime traveler’s package — for people travelling by boat — is priced at IDR4,435,000 per month, but comes with a much more expensive VSAT hardware costing IDR 43,721,590.
Much can be praised on Musk’s investments towards greater internet penetration rates in remote areas of the archipelago. Internet accessibility has increasingly become a powerful instrument for the democratization of knowledge across socioeconomic barriers. Musk himself stated that even MIT lectures can be accessed by children in remote areas of third world countries, given sustainable and reliable access to the web.
Currently, Starlink’s satellites are hovering at approximately 342 miles (550 kilometers) above Earth, providing coverage to over 75 countries. Indonesia has just been added to that list. But whether or not their aggressively priced offerings can successfully launch to orbit in Indonesia’s data plan market remains to be seen.