Cellular industry to invest US$1b<\/p>\n
Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The country's cellular phone operators will invest at least
\nUS$1 billion this year to expand their networks to cope with
\ngrowing demand, the Association of Indonesian Cellular Operators
\n(ATSI) says.<\/p>\n
The figure covers only the investment planned by the country's
\ntop five operators, ATSI vice chairman Rudiantara told The
\nJakarta Post over the weekend.<\/p>\n
There are 16 cellular operators in the country, including the
\ntop five of PT Telkomsel, PT Satelindo, PT Excelcomindo Pratama,
\nPT Natrindo of the Lippo Group and PT Indosat MultiMedia Mobile
\n(IM3), which is the newly established subsidiary of state-owned
\ntelecommunications firm PT Indosat.<\/p>\n
Rudiantara said the five operators invested approximately $900
\nmillion last year.<\/p>\n
Of the total, some $700 million had been invested by
\nTelkomsel, Satelindo and Excelcomindo.<\/p>\n
The other $200 million was invested by IM3 and Natrindo, which
\noperates in East Java.<\/p>\n
\"The $700 million was investments generated internally, while
\n$200 million was from the companies' shareholders,\" Rudiantara
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
He said that if all went as planned this year -- including the
\nplanned initial public offerings (IPOs) of Telkomsel and
\nSatelindo -- the expansions of the companies' cellular networks
\nmay total more than $1 billion.<\/p>\n
If Satelindo's IPO goes through it will likely invest $160
\nmillion this year, while Telkomsel may invest $500 million
\nfollowing an IPO, Rudiantara said.<\/p>\n
Rudiantara, who is also director of Excelcomindo, said that
\nthe company would invest between $150 million and $175 million
\nthis year, adding that IM3 planned to invest another $200
\nmillion.<\/p>\n
\"This means that this year we are looking at about 2.5 million
\nin added capacity from cellular operators, which would bring the
\ntotal number of subscribers to about 8.5 million,\" he said,
\nadding that he estimated there were six million subscribers at
\nthe end of last year.<\/p>\n
The total number of subscribers could well exceed the 8.5
\nmillion figure if investment cost per subscriber falls from its
\ncurrent $400 per subscriber, Rudiantara said, quickly adding that
\na higher number would not necessarily represent all productive
\nsubscribers.<\/p>\n
\"They would probably include subscribers that only bring Rp
\n75,000 ($7.20) in revenue. Do companies want this kind of
\nsubscriber?\" he said. He was responding to reports that cellular
\nsubscribers may reach 11 million this year.<\/p>\n
Rudiantara also said that two interesting phenomena would
\noccur in the cellular business this year, one was that the number
\nof cellular subscribers in the country would exceed that of
\nfixed-line telephone subscribers, which were expected to increase
\nto 7.4 million this year compared to 6.66 million in 2000.<\/p>\n
The other phenomenon was that revenue from cellular
\nsubscribers would equal that of fixed-line telephones, whether
\nfrom domestic local, long distance or international calls, he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
\"Last year, from a total of Rp 25 trillion in revenue from the
\nIndonesian telecommunications industry, some 40 percent was from
\ncellular services,\" Rudiantara said, adding that this year the
\nfigure was expected to increase to Rp 30 trillion, of which 50
\npercent would come from cellular services.<\/p>\n
In 2002, voice services would still dominate cellular usage,
\ndespite the introduction of general packet radio service (GPRS)
\nthat was expected to make data transmission faster and cheaper,
\nhe said.<\/p>\n
Of last year's Rp 10.5 trillion revenue from cellular
\nservices, only 8 percent was generated from nonvoice services
\nsuch as short message service (SMS), Rudiantara said.<\/p>\n
\"This year we expect nonvoice to increase to about 12 percent,
\nof which only 1 percent would come from GPRS. Quite
\ninsignificant,\" he said.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/cellular-industry-to-invest-us1b-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}