Originally Posted by
dvs7310
While that's true about SIM registration on short visits it does force you to use a tourist SIM that costs several times more than a local one. I learned this the hard way last year, if you do IMEI registration on your customs declaration then you can use a local SIM card, but if you don't it'll get deactivated pretty quickly (mine was 24 hours) since there's no IMEI match in the system.
There's certainly no great difficulty involved in adding the IMEI information to the customs declaration, so long as you're not as technologically challenged as I was when asked to supply the number
And for those not intending to purchase a SIM, there's no need to bother at all.
I spend a lot of time in Indonesia and had survived happily on my UK network's no fuss, free data-only roaming in Indonesia ..... until that facility disappeared.
Picking up a SIM at a Telkomsel GraPARI store is easy and staff there seem happy enough to undertake the fiddly bits of installation, getting things up and running, including registering the phone. Packages at the airport seem expensive: if I need transport at the airport I can make do with the airport wifi for Grab, divert to the Bluebird line, or take the train if the schedule allows.
I'm not sure about tourist vs local packages, as far as i know both would now require phone registration - which can be taken care of at purchase. The only tourist package I've used is the excellent value one I think only available in Bali and Yogya, though it gave national coverage: it was something like IDR150K (£7) for 30 days and included a hefty data quota and voice.
On the "local" subject, it's maybe a good idea to check if allowances are indeed local, and restricted to a geographical area rather than giving national access. No problem if you are staying put in Java or Bali, but an annoyance if you are travelling more widely.