Telkom to begin mobile telephone services next year<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): State-owned domestic telephone operator PT
\nTelekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) will join the ranks of cellular
\nphone network providers in 2001, an executive said on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Telkom's head of investor relations, Setiawan Sulistyono, said
\nthe company's cellular service would be launched officially in
\nAugust 2001.<\/p>\n
\"For the first stage Telkom intends to install 200,000 lines
\ncovering Greater Jakarta, Bandung and Bandar Lampung,\" he told
\nThe Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
Telkom will enter the market using the Global System for
\nMobile Communications (GSM) at 1800 Megahertz, Setiawan said,
\nadding that the infrastructure would be built by PT Siemens
\nIndonesia.<\/p>\n
Siemens, a German-based communications company, won the 62.7
\nmillion euro and Rp 28.8 billion (US$3 million) contract tender
\nheld by Telkom in August, he said. The tender involved six big
\nnames in telecommunications: Motorola, Ericsson, Nokia, Siemens,
\nLucent and Alcatel.<\/p>\n
Setiawan said Telkom invested about Rp 90.5 billion this year
\nto begin its cellular project.<\/p>\n
\"The cost of each line initially is $600 a line, but it will
\ngradually become cheaper to about $400 a line because we will
\nmerge it with the existing Telkom infrastructure,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Setiawan said Telkom expects to install 400,000 lines within
\ntwo years of the initial launch, with the number of customers
\npredicted to reach 495,000 within three years.<\/p>\n
Telkom's vice president for corporate communications, D.
\nAmarudien, said Telkom would enter the market with its prepaid
\nand postpaid subscriber identity module (SIM) cards, which would
\nenable customers to use the general packet radio services (GPRS).<\/p>\n
GPRS enables high-speed mobile datacom usage, which is useful
\nfor data applications such as mobile Internet browsing, e-mail
\nand push technologies. GPRS has been demonstrated to achieve
\nspeeds of up to 115 kilobits per second.<\/p>\n
Currently there are three GSM-900 operators in the country: PT
\nTelkomsel with its Kartu Halo postpaid SIM card and Simpati
\nprepaid card; PT Excelcomindo Pratama with its proXL SIM card;
\nand PT Satelindo with the Satelindo postpaid card and Mentari
\nprepaid card.<\/p>\n
Other cellular operators in Indonesia are Telesera, Metrosel
\nand Komselindo, which operate under the Advanced Mobile Phone
\nSystem, and Mobisel, which operates under the Nordic Mobile
\nTelephone System.<\/p>\n
PT Indosat recently revealed plans to enter the cellular
\nmarket next year. It also will operate under the GSM-1800 system.
\n(tnt)<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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