Breaking news opened the New Year celebration on 1st January 2024, revealing a fire that struck the transmitter building of the Indosat office in Banyumanik, Semarang. Indosat Ooredoo is one of the country’s largest internet providers and is utilized by over 90 million people in Indonesia.
A video uploaded by @UR970901 via Twitter shows that the fire occurred at 09:55 AM local time, significantly affecting the internet signal for Indosat users in the Central Java and Yogyakarta regions.
kebakaran di kantor indosat banyumanik semarang, senin (1/1/2024) pukul 09.55 WIB
mungkin gegara ini jaringan sinyal internet im3 & 3 error trouble sampe hilang total. dari tadi cm ’emergency calls only’ kan pic.twitter.com/FVsiyjpaXS
— 🌱 (@UR970901) January 1, 2024
The Banyumanik Police swiftly initiated an investigation into the Indosat office fire’s cause. “We’re focusing on locating the fire’s origin, relying on witness accounts from the battery room. It seems that several batteries overheated, likely due to potential user overload on New Year’s Eve,” stated Police Commissioner Ali Santoso, Banyumanik Police Chief.
Additionally, Indosat internet provider users took to social media to voice their complaints about signal loss starting from 10 AM local time. Their signal status displayed “Emergency Calls Only” for several hours.
The signal loss from the Indosat office fire has impacted numerous cities such as Semarang, Yogyakarta, Kudus, Surakarta, Jakarta, Surabaya, and Malang.
Steve Saerang, serving as the SVP Head of Corporate Communications at Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, mentioned their efforts to resolve the signal interference. However, Ooredoo has yet to issue an official statement concerning the fire’s cause.
As of 2nd January 2024, the Ooredoo team continues efforts to restore the user network. Presently, Indosat users in the Central Java and Yogyakarta regions remain unable to access the internet, make calls, or receive messages.
