Phone rate increase effective Friday<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The government's decision to raise telephone rates by an
\naverage of 15 percent will become effective as from Friday
\n(today), according to a letter signed by Minister of
\nTransportation Agum Gumelar and sent to three telecommunications
\nfirms.<\/p>\n
According to the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The
\nJakarta Post, Agum, who also oversees telecommunications, said
\nthat the phone rate increase was part of the government's three-
\nyear plan to crank up phone charges by 45.49 percent in a bid to
\nhelp attract new investment in the fixed-line telecommunications
\nsector.<\/p>\n
In a report published in this paper on Wednesday, Agum said
\nthat the hike in phone rates would be effective as from Thursday.<\/p>\n
Telecommunication firms could not yet provide details of the
\nnew phone rates as their top officials were, as of late Thursday,
\nstill in a meeting to finalize the details of their calculations.<\/p>\n
The phone rate hike had been approved by the House of
\nRepresentatives in November last year.<\/p>\n
The government is planning to expand the country's
\ntelecommunications network. It has targeted the installation of
\nat least two million telephone lines by 2004.<\/p>\n
State-owned telecommunications company PT Telkom had installed
\na total of 7.1 million telephone lines across the country, which
\nis equivalent to 3.24 telephone lines for every 100 people.<\/p>",
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