Indonesia’s Constitutional Court (MK) has ordered telecommunications providers to offer service options that protect customers’ unused internet data. The landmark ruling recognizes the economic value of paid data. It allows safeguards including rollover, validity extensions, transfers, and compensation (refunds). It stops short of requiring every package to carry data forward automatically.

JAKARTA, thekabarnews.com—Indonesia’s Constitutional Court (MK) has ordered telecommunications operators to provide service options that keep customers’ unused internet data active and available. This strengthens consumer protection for prepaid and postpaid users.

MK Chief Justice Suhartoyo announced the decision at the court’s plenary chamber in Jakarta on Thursday, July 23. The court partially granted Case No. 273/PUU-XXIII/2025, which challenged provisions governing telecommunications tariffs under the Job Creation Law.

“Adjudicating: Granting the petitioners’ application in part,” Suhartoyo said while reading the ruling.

The court conditionally reinterpreted Article 28(1), contained in Article 71 point 2 of the annex to Law No. 6 of 2023.

Under the binding interpretation, operators may continue setting telecommunications tariffs using a central-government formula. They must provide service choices that guarantee customers can keep and use their remaining quota.

Constitutional Court Justice Adies Kadir said users must receive protection for data they have bought but not fully consumed.

“In real terms, quota that has not been fully used or enjoyed must remain protected as the user’s property and be available until it is exhausted, without additional fees or charges under the pretext of extending its validity period or for any other reason,” Adies said in the official court statement.

The judgment does not require every data package to carry unused quota forward automatically. Operators may continue offering different products, including rollover and non-rollover packages. Importantly, consumers must receive a genuine option that protects the economic benefit of unused data.

The court listed several possible safeguards:

Data rollover
An extended validity period
Transfer of benefits
Compensation
A proportional refund
Another equivalent protection mechanism

Providers must also clearly explain prices, data volumes, validity periods, fair-use policies, expiration rules and the treatment of unused quota.

Online motorcycle taxi driver Didi Supandi, online food seller Wahyu Triana Sari and lecturer-lawyer Rega Felix filed the successful petition.

They argued that allowing operators to erase paid data at the end of a package’s validity period created legal uncertainty. It also unfairly removed consumers’ economic benefits.

The court agreed that unused data retains economic value because customers paid for access to a specified volume of service. It treated that paid benefit as an intangible property interest protected by Article 28H(4) of Indonesia’s Constitution.

The court also linked arbitrary removal of the benefit to the right to fair legal certainty under Article 28D(1).

Operators must offer at least one meaningful service option that preserves unused data or its economic benefit. They must provide accessible tools for customers to monitor their usage and remaining quota. They also need to provide effective complaint channels.

During the proceedings, the Indonesian Telecommunications Providers Association and operators including Telkomsel, Indosat and XLSMART supported a mixed framework of rollover and non-rollover plans. They also supported greater product transparency and stronger consumer safeguards, according to the MK’s hearing record.

Consumers should not assume every existing package will immediately become an automatic rollover plan. The government and operators must now align tariff formulas, service options and customer information with the court’s binding interpretation.