Local operators heading for '2.5G' technology<\/p>\n
Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Voice transmission is still the darling of Indonesian mobile
\nphone users, while data transmission and applications over the
\nmobile system have yet to gain enough momentum for local
\noperators to worry about it.<\/p>\n
But as the rest of the world plunges head-first to embrace the
\nthird generation of mobile services, or 3G, it would seem that
\nIndonesia -- or at least the operators -- would refuse to be left
\nbehind.<\/p>\n
While it is true that users would have to wait some time for
\n3G to ever set foot on Indonesian soil, cellular operators are
\nnow vying to provide their customers with the next best thing:
\nthe two-and-a-half generation (2.5G) mobile services.<\/p>\n
The 2.5G technology was invented to bridge the gap between the
\ncurrent 2G and the future 3G technologies for the Global System
\nfor Mobile communications (GSM), currently the most popular
\nmobile system in the country.<\/p>\n
3G has been hyped as the ultimate in mobile phone technology,
\nwith speed reaching up to 144 Kbps or up to 2 megabits per second
\nfrom fixed locations, it allows powerful multimedia capabilities
\nsuch as video streaming.<\/p>\n
For Indonesia's four biggest GSM operators -- PT
\nTelekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel); PT Satelit Palapa Indonesia
\n(Satelindo), along with PT Excelcomindo Pratama and PT Indosat
\nMultiMedia Mobile (IM3), the 2.5G or the General Packet Radio
\nService (GPRS) will boost speed data transmission to up to 115
\nkilobits per second (Kbps) as compared with the current 9.6 Kbps.<\/p>\n
Also, because the data transferred is in "packets," billing
\ncould be done per kilobit downloaded instead of per second as it
\nis currently done, making the data transfer much faster and
\ncheaper to access.<\/p>\n
Of the four GSM companies operating nationally, only IM3 has
\nlaunched its GPRS services, albeit still available free of charge
\ndue to billing difficulties. But the other three operators are
\nnot far behind.<\/p>\n
Telkomsel and Satelindo have both begun a technical trial of
\nGPRS since last year, but has yet to decide when to launch the
\nservice commercially.<\/p>\n
"We want to see the development of the market first,"
\nTelkomsel's director of finance Jusuf Kurnia said, echoing the
\nstatement of Satelindo's vice president for cellular services,
\nTien Thinh Pham.<\/p>\n
Both agreed that the service would be launched commercially
\nsometime during the coming year.<\/p>\n
"Demand from the public for GPRS isn't all that high. The way
\nI see it, the driving force behind the deployment of GPRS is
\nreally from the handset companies," Excelcomindo general manager
\nfor engineering, M. Danny Buldansyah, said.<\/p>\n
Handset companies such as Nokia, Ericsson, and Siemens already
\nbegan marketing their GPRS-ready hand phones since late last
\nyear, "so it is important for marketing that the operators
\nprovide the service," Danny said, adding that Excelcomindo was
\nlikely to deploy GPRS in the second half of the year.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, since its initial launch in the second half of
\n2001, IM3's GPRS has attracted between 5,000 to 6,000 users of
\nits 175,000 subscribers, according to IM3 president Hasnul
\nSuhaimi.<\/p>\n
"But this could be because the service is still provided for
\nfree," he said.<\/p>\n
IM3 plans to begin commercial billing for its GPRS service
\nafter April at between Rp 25 (about US$0.0028) to Rp 40 per
\nkilobit downloaded for wireless application protocol (WAP)
\ncontents, and about a tenth of the cost for web contents, Hasnul
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Despite the billing, Hasnul said that he is optimistic the
\nnumber of users would increase in the future, as the availability
\nof more GPRS-ready handsets in the second half of the year
\nincreases as well.<\/p>\n
However, the more pressing problem, according to operators,
\nwas the limited availability of content. "A platform without
\ncontent won't work, meanwhile, we operators cannot provide them
\nourselves -- we don't have the capability for it," Hasnul said.<\/p>\n
He said that currently IM3's GPRS platform was mainly used to
\naccess the Internet, rather than specially developed mobile
\ncontents like those developed for the WAP.<\/p>\n
"Why do you think DoCoMo was a success? Because it cooperates
\nwith more than 4,000 content providers, that's why," Hasnul
\nadded.<\/p>\n
Indonesia is also host to two other cellular systems, the
\nAdvanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS), and the Nordic Mobile
\nTelephones (NMT), but these systems are less popular due to its
\nolder analog technology, and limited coverage area.<\/p>\n
AMPS operators are PT Telesera, PT Metrosel, and PT
\nKomselindo; while NMT operator is PT Mobisel. These companies
\noperate regionally and are currently in the process of switching
\nto the more advanced Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) system.<\/p>\n
According to state telecommunications company PT Telkom, as of
\nSeptember, the number of cellular subscribers totaled 5.3 million
\n-- compared with 3.2 million in the same period in the year 2000.<\/p>\n
This number is expected to increase to between 9 million and
\n11 million this year, surpassing the number of fixed-line
\ntelephone subscribers.<\/p>\n
Telkomsel holds about 46 percent of the market with 3.25
\nmillion subscribers at the end of last year, followed by
\nSatelindo, with 1.5 million subscribers, and Excelcomindo, with
\n1.1 million subscribers.<\/p>\n
Although still small, the contribution of mobile data services
\nis increasing at a rapid pace, contributing about seven to eight
\npercent last year, compared with only two percent the previous
\nyear, Hasnul said.<\/p>\n
This rapid climb was attributed to the success of the short
\nmessage service (SMS), which had enjoyed staggering success last
\nyear after GSM operators decided to introduce inter-operator SMS.
\nSMS traffic more than tripled after the inter-operator service
\nwas introduced in May.<\/p>\n
Various applications then followed similar to those developed
\nfor the flopped WAP, such as information on demand and mobile
\nbanking and today, local GSM operators provide information on the
\nlatest movies, news, stock prices, and the hugely popular ring-
\ntone and logo pickups, based on the SMS.<\/p>\n
The SMS became a hit simply because it is easy to use, and
\ncheap. Unlike the WAP that is charged by the time spent on the
\nnetwork, SMS is charged by the message.<\/p>\n
But the advent of the GPRS platform may bring hope to the WAP,
\nas it will make transmission faster with billing charged by the
\n"packet."<\/p>",
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