Telkom denies strong-arming cellular operators<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): State telecommunications company PT
\nTelekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) has denied an allegation that
\nit has forced cellular operators to use its transmission
\nfacilities for their domestic long distance calls.<\/p>\n
Telkom's director of operations and marketing John Welly said
\ncellular telephone operators were free to use their own
\nterminals.<\/p>\n
\"The allegation that Telkom is still charging cellular
\noperators with interconnection fees on domestic long distance
\ncalls is also not true,\" he said last week.<\/p>\n
He was commenting on a recent call made by the Directorate
\nGeneral of Post and Telecommunications urging Telkom to stop
\ninstructing cellular operators to use Telkom's transmission
\nnetworks for domestic long distance call services and asking for
\npayment for the service.<\/p>\n
According to a decree issued by the Minister of Communications
\nin May this year, cellular operators can use their own mobile
\nswitching center (MSC) instead of Telkom's fixed line trunk
\nexchange terminals when serving domestic long distance calls.<\/p>\n
But cellular phone operators complained that Telkom ignored
\nthe ruling and still required them to use its transmission
\nfacilities.<\/p>\n
According to the regulation, cellular operators are only
\nrequired to pay the interconnection fee to Telkom if they use the
\nstate telecommunications company's transmission facilities.<\/p>\n
Cellular operators are now using Telkom's terminals only when
\ntransmitting local, international or domestic long distance calls
\nwhich involve Telkom's fixed line phone users, he said.<\/p>\n
\"Operators will have to use our terminals and pay for the
\ninterconnection fee if they transmit calls to Telkom's fixed line
\nphone users,\" he said, adding that cellular operators would have
\nto do so because they did not have the facilities to allow direct
\ntransmission from cellular phones to a fixed line phone.<\/p>\n
Telkom's president A.A. Nasution admitted that the
\ngovernment's decision to allow cellular operators not to use
\nTelkom's terminal for domestic long distance calls between
\ncellular phone users would affect the company's revenues from
\ninterconnection fee.<\/p>\n
\"But, we will not ask the government to withdraw the
\nregulation. It will happen sooner or later anyway. We just
\nconsider it as sharing our business opportunities with others,\"
\nhe said.<\/p>\n
John said the fact that cellular operators would not
\ncontribute interconnection fees to Telkom for their domestic long
\ndistance call services would not significantly affect Telkom's
\nrevenues from interconnection fees.<\/p>\n
Telkom received Rp 572.77 billion (US$88 million) in 1997 and
\nRp 555.51 billion in 1998 in interconnection revenues.<\/p>\n
John said domestic long distance calls only contributed a
\nsmall portion in Telkom's entire interconnection revenues.<\/p>\n
\"The biggest part, or about 80 percent, of our interconnection
\nfees actually come from international calls,\" he said. (cst)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/telkom-denies-strong-arming-cellular-operators-1447893297",
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