Indonesia’s only 4G LTE network, Bolt, quietly introduced a new pricing scheme on Wednesday, effectively cutting the data package allowances for the same prices. While the company maintains that it reserves the right to alter its prices, failure to communicate the changes only infuriated its customer base and they took to Twitter to voice their anger.

While the company had mentioned that the old pricing structure was only valid until 30 September, the @boltcare account only told subscribers that the terms and conditions are included on that page and that it is to be read carefully. The fact that there was going to be a change in prices was never actively communicated and still has yet to be properly announced.

Having established the prices since its launch in November 2013, Bolt’s pricing structure had been far more favorable compared to other mobile networks by giving a much higher data allowance per subscription option but the new structure which came into effect on 1 October made it comparable to its 3G competitors, to an extent.

Since the days of standard voice and text plans, mobile telcos have been implementing a two tiered usage allowance in which the main allowance is for the entire duration of the subscription period while the bonus allowance applies during specific times of the day, typically between midnight and daybreak. This policy was then carried over to the data plans.

Bolt’s pricing structure on the other hand had no bonus scheme until 1 October but its data allowance far exceeded any of its competitors and therefore became the primary drawcard to the service, since Bolt’s main selling point, its LTE network, had largely failed to deliver on its promise.

Average Usage

The company’s chief technology officer, Devid Gubiani, had admitted that despite the claims of up to 72 Mbps downstream transfer rate, its network has so far seen an average of 12.5 Mbps, six times slower than the claimed maximum, but also roughly five times faster than the average Indonesian connection. Akamai’s State of the Internet report for the second quarter of 2014 puts Indonesia’s average Internet speed at 2.5 Mbps.

As per the article from Mobile World Live, Bolt subscribers generally consume an average of 400MB per day or 12GB per month although the heavy users can consume up to 2GB per day or 60GB per month. With the new pricing structure, subscribers will have to reduce their average daily usage to fewer than 300MB after the first week.

Many of Bolt’s subscribers are not subscribers of landline broadband, which means that this is their primary connection to the Internet, in addition to the more expensive 3G data plans that they may also have.

Data Plans

Bolt’s previous data plans are as follows:

While the new plans are below:

The new structure gives an overall greater data allowance but the main quota is half of what it used to be while the bonus quota, which can only be used within the first seven days of activation, makes up the rest of the new allowance.

Not only does this new structure mean that for the same amount of money subscribers will get half as much data that they can use for the entire subscription period compared to the old structure, it also means that despite the higher allowance, subscribers have only the first seven days to use the bonus, which is 60% of the quota.

No Communication

Bolt subscribers receive emails each time they extend their subscriptions or purchase a data package and the company sends promotional emails from time to time. For some reason, the company decided that it does not see the need to communicate the changes to its pricing structure aside from on the pricing page itself.

There had been no email, no announcement on the website whatsoever, and no mention of it on its two Twitter accounts, @boltsuper4g and @boltcare.

According on the conversation collected in Storify below, the current pricing will remain until the end of the year before they are changed again, but if the company decides to make changes before then, it does not plan to make any announcement.

Being available only in Jakarta and the immediate surrounding cities, Bolt revealed in late September that it had signed up 750,000 subscribers in ten months since it launched.