Have your fortune told via your hand phone.

Indonesia’s Hand Phone Networks – Thumbs Up

I’m really impressed with Indonesia’s hand phone networks. It all just seems to work so well. Buying pulsa could never be easier and, in my and my wife’s experience at least, never had black spots which seem to be everywhere in Australia, drop outs or much network downtime.

In Australia, hand phone (HP) services up until recently were predominantly contract-based. Sign up for 24 months on a particular plan, get HP ‘free’ (price included in the monthly fees). At the end of the 24 months, you have to make sure you cancel if you want to cancel, otherwise they automatically extend the contract. Then pre-paid came in and made life a little easier.

Not as easy as in Indonesia though – need more pulsa? No need to go all the way to the mall. There’s bound to be a guy on the side of the street within strolling distance (my idea of strolling distance at least – 5 or so km’s) selling what you need. If not, go to the guy around the corner.

SMS Messaging Services

But with the popularity of HPs here comes the boom in sms-based messaging services. You know, the register and receive your horoscope, a prayer, a message from your favourite soap star and so on.

Deddy Corbuzier

One that has been advertised recently is by one of these ‘try to look scary’ fortune tellers or mind readers, Deddy Corbuzier, see Deddy Corbuzier Menebak Nasib Orang Lewat HP. I’m not sure exactly what he does. Never bothered to stay on the same TV station that he occasionally appears on to find out. Anyway, he’s this bald guy with black shoe polish on his head and around his eyes and down his chin that makes him look like a cross between Count Dracula and Hong Kong Phooey.

He is currently offering to send you your personal fortune telling via sms. Just ‘ketik REG Spasi etc…’ and for a small fee you will receive your personal fortune reading.

Hang on a minute, my personal fortune reading? Come on, the guy’s a professional whatever reader, he does regular gigs to pay the bills presumably. Do people really believe he has the time to sit down and read the fortunes of a potential 100 million or more sms requests and send a response quickly enough to satisfy customers that today is a good day to do business?