IAW Calls The Hanging Of Internet Quota The Largest Digital Economy Crime

GSM card illustration (Pixabay)

JAKARTA Secretary of Founder of Indonesian Audit Watch (IAW), Iskandar Sitorus, emphasized that the practice of executing internet quotas that have been purchased by the public for more than 15 years is a serious violation in the telecommunications industry. He asked the government under President Prabowo Subianto to immediately step in to resolve the issue.

According to Iskandar, the public has been accustomed to accepting something illogical, namely the volume of data that has been legally purchased can be destroyed just because the active period has run out. Even though what the public buys is data volume, not time subscriptions.

"Today, all regulatory, economic, governance, and evidence from its own providers increasingly shows that the quota is not just a technical issue. This is the biggest digital economy crime in Indonesian history," said Iskandar, Monday, November 17.

Iskandar strongly criticized the attitude of the Indonesian Mobile Telecommunications Association (ATSI) which argued that the quota could not be permanent because it was bound by frequency spectrum. He said the reasons were legally weak and contradictory technically and economically. According to him, the frequency is not related to the right to ownership of the quota.

He gave an example of electricity tokens, e-money, e-tolls, and e-wallet balances that are both frequency technology-based, but are not enforced charred. Therefore, he assessed that the practice of cutting quotas is more of a business policy that harms consumers.

Iskandar said that the change in the policy of a number of providers in the last 12 months is strong evidence that the quota actually does not need to be scorched.

Products like Best for You and Telkomsel's rollover, My Package from XL, Freedom No Hangus from Indosat, to Smartfren non-stop services show that the industry is actually capable of providing a quota that is not forfeited.

"All releases use the official phrase: quota will not be scorched, rollover, and transparency in use so that no quota is wasted. This proves that previously the quota scorched was a policy that was deliberately maintained," he said.

IAW has submitted public complaints to the Criminal Investigation Unit of the National Police on September 21, 2022 regarding potential violations of PSAK 23 and indications of fraud by omission. IAW's findings regarding the loss of a charred quota worth IDR 63 trillion have also been discussed by Commission I of the DPR in June 2025.

Iskandar added, if it is calculated conservatively assuming 200 million customers, the average quota expenditure is IDR 25,000, and the tolerance is 10 percent of the quota scorched, then the potential public loss can reach around IDR 613 trillion in 15 years. He emphasized that IAW will continue to oversee this issue until there is a real change from the telecommunications industry.