Batam Info / Interest / Help Thread

[kardinal05]

Anyone be going batam on the 10th - 12th Aug?
I be driving and lookin for khakis.

[QazxSW09]

18-19th Aug, anyone?

[D3NI3D]

Originally Posted by fde83

The best bbbj in batam is back in town. touch down yesterday.

Care to share info.

[BFOMF5]

FYI

Old loki lease ended.
Moved behind Hans Inn
2 shops away from Hellana

[BFOMF5]

[fde83]

Today batam centre area there will be demo, road closure. may extend till tomorrow. Try to avoid coming to batam via batam centre for the next 2 days unless u wana stuck in jam. Hehe

[nitecrawllerr]

Originally Posted by fde83

Today batam centre area there will be demo, road closure. may extend till tomorrow. Try to avoid coming to batam via batam centre for the next 2 days unless u wana stuck in jam. Hehe

Tks for the info. Helpful. Anyway whats the demo about?

[fde83]

Originally Posted by nitecrawllerr

Tks for the info. Helpful. Anyway whats the demo about?

I didn't went further and ask what's the demo about, hehe but it will end today around 6pm and may extend till tomorrow.

[nono1973]

Originally Posted by Black Page

SHOULD I BUY A LOCAL SIM IN BATAM?

Yes, definitely. When I arrive to Batam, the first thing I do after having settled in my room is going to Lucky Plaza to buy two Simpati SIMs (why two? read below).
Best of all, I suggest to have two phones: your usual smartphone with your usual SIM and a cheap additional phone. I keep my smartphone active for Internet access (on wifi), receiving SMS from my home country, whatever, and I also have a GSM Nokia phone for local voice calls and SMS.

There are two good reasons for getting a local SIM for the second phone:
1) You may not want to give out your main phone number to anyone you meet. I usually copy to my whatsapp and wechat only those I think are worth.
2) You may need to contact or be contacted by someone also when you are out of wifi coverage (I exclude using roaming, due to cost).

If you have only one phone, I would put the local SIM in your main phone, to be online 24/24.

For newcomers who planned only a 2D1N Batam or at times a 3D2N trip,i wont usually ask them to get a sim card unless knowing that they will be coming back in the next 30 days,or so.

In Singapore,there are 3 Telco providers, many Singaporean don't use pre-paid card and most would already have a post paid sim card which will be billed to their home address monthly.

In those post-paid sim card,there was monthly package deal,eg 500 mins talk time,5 GB data usage. By paying a nomination sum of around S$10 to S$12 to their respective Telco companies,they will be able to utilize what's remain from their post paid sim card package (when they are oversea). And charges will be similar to what they will be paying for in Singapore.

Its just an option if Singaporean post-paid sim card user do not wish to switch their sim cards around over their same phone.

*pre-paid card with a store value of S$X will be another deal,different from the post paid ones.

Originally Posted by Black Page

USING PUBLIC WIFI IN BATAM

If you want to keep your SIM in your main phone, to be reachable on your main number, you have the option of public wifi. Not only in restaurants and clubs: there is also a public wifi which works not bad, provided by Telekom Indonesia.

Using your main phone (with non-Indo SIM card), you connect to @wifi.id, and you land to a page where you are offered the options.
Minimum is 5000rp for 1 day access. I was used to pay 20000rp for 1 week.
In the same page, you are given a message to send by SMS to a number (valid only for Simpati cards). This message identifies the phone from you which you landed to the welcome page.

You must have another phone with a Simpati local SIM card with some credit (I have an old GSM Nokia, which I keep purposely for local SIMs). You send the SMS and you receive a SMS with login id and pw, which you use to login on the landing page still open in your main phone. Most of the times, if not even the first time, you don't need to enter this id/pw everytime, because it recognizes you (the phone from which the landing page was seen).

This above were interesting notes.

I use 2 phones,1 with Singapore sim card,the other with Indo sim card.

Originally Posted by Black Page

3) I also have a portable 4G modem, in which I put another local Simpati SIM with a data plan including a few GBytes. This SIM will not be used for voice calls: only data. I keep my 4G modem with me at all times: it provides a wifi personal access (I can connect up to 10 devices, if needed) wherever I go. It's high speed! I tested it and I could reach good speeds well above 10 Mbit/s. This SIM with 7 GB valid for 1 month costs around 140k, if I remember well.

This above is something I am planning to look into in my upcoming Batam trip. I would like to ask :

1. Is there a USB portable sim card modem for sale in Batam? (I wish to buy it in Batam)

2. If so,where can I buy it and which indo Telco company offer the fastest internet speed using a portable sim card modem (via plugging into a laptop with USB).

3. I am also looking at a Router that connects to the USB portable sim card too. Hence turning the area where I am into a hot spot.

Whether I could get answer/s here,i will still continue to go in search of it in Batam. I just wish to get it in Batam and have everything set up there and not in Singapore (I have done the same in Singapore before). Getting around to set up this can be quite inconvenient for myself in Batam ,as I do not understand their language.

Originally Posted by Black Page

Definitely! Even in Formosa, when they were insisting they needed to call IT staff, I advised them to just switch off and restart the router. Magic!
Restarting does not speed up the connection, but flushes IP addresses that have been assigned (and many of them may be not in use in anymore). It is needed when one cannot connect, as one of the most frequent reasons is that all available IP addresses have been assigned already.

I did that in the hotel (in-person) a long time ago.

[Heil Hitler]

Originally Posted by BFOMF5

Isn't Morena29 a banned joint?

[lurpsexx]

Sometimes in overseas when you need to receive calls from locals, getting a local prepaid sim card with data and calls is much better.. The locals can call you on the local number sim , n if you roam on sg sim card for data while overseas, then the locals not willing to call u as its international call for them n very expensive.. esp for Uber or grab drivers to place a phone call to you to confirm location etc ( not WhatsApp call)..

[mygirly]

[QUOTE=nono1973;16243493]

This above is something I am planning to look into in my upcoming Batam trip. I would like to ask :

1. Is there a USB portable sim card modem for sale in Batam? (I wish to buy it in Batam)

2. If so,where can I buy it and which indo Telco company offer the fastest internet speed using a portable sim card modem (via plugging into a laptop with USB).

3. I am also looking at a Router that connects to the USB portable sim card too. Hence turning the area where I am into a hot spot.

/QUOTE]

U shd get this........
As for good internet speed I prefer XL.
Hope it helps
.

[DDAMn]

Originally Posted by nitecrawllerr

Tks for the info. Helpful. Anyway whats the demo about?

Same issues about the entry of uber n grab into batam thus affecting the overcrowded taxi market.Started from as early as 5am.

[Black Page]

[QUOTE=mygirly;16244709]

Originally Posted by nono1973

1. Is there a USB portable sim card modem for sale in Batam? (I wish to buy it in Batam) .

For God's sake, why would you want a portable modem with USB connection to your laptop?? Does not your laptop have a wifi card?
And then you also want a "Router that connects to the USB portable sim card too. Hence turning the area where I am into a hot spot"??

Buy a single portable WiFi modem/router!
It's small like a soap. You insert your SIM card. You keep it in your pocket. Then you have a Wifi hotspot moving with you, to which you can connect up to 10 devices, for example your laptop, your smartphone(s), and even the smartphones of your friends and girls.

If your modem is 4G, with a 4G Simpati card in Batam you get up to a few tens of Mbit/s. (I remember a price like 100k-140k for a SIM card with 7GB for one month)

[SheldonXX]

Originally Posted by lurpsexx

Sometimes in overseas when you need to receive calls from locals, getting a local prepaid sim card with data and calls is much better.. The locals can call you on the local number sim , n if you roam on sg sim card for data while overseas, then the locals not willing to call u as its international call for them n very expensive.. esp for Uber or grab drivers to place a phone call to you to confirm location etc ( not WhatsApp call)..

Not for Indonesia's case. Their VoIP rate for calling overseas number is much much cheaper than sending sms.