Alcatel wins US$5 million contract

Alcatel wins US$5 million contract

JAKARTA (JP): French telecommunications firm Alcatel has won a contract for the construction of a microwave transmission network linking Ujungpandang in South Sulawesi with Pagal in Flores.

Alcatel's director of corporate relations in Asia, Laurent de Segonzac, said on Tuesday night that his company would complete the construction of the US$5 million network by the middle of 1996.

"The 140-Mbit digital link will feature 134 hops over the sea, which will constitute a world record," he said.

He said that the installation of the network would be carried out by PT Alcatel Enkomindo, a local joint venture company which is 70 percent owned by Alcatel, 20 percent by PT Elektrindo Nusantara and 10 percent by PT Telekomindo.

Segonzac said that Alcatel had already supplied the state- owned domestic telecommunications operator, PT Telkom, with six major digital microwave backbone networks, with a total length of about 10,000 kilometers in Sumatra, Java, Bali, Sulawesi and the Nusa Tenggara islands, which include Flores.

"The Ujungpandang-Pagal digital microwave system will connect the microwave backbones of Sulawesi and Nusa Tenggara," he said.

He said that, in addition to the microwave projects, his company was participating in the development of infrastructure for a global system mobile communications (GSM) which is operated by PT Satelindo.

"Alcatel is developing and supplying all of Satelindo's GSM infrastructure, with a total capacity of 350,000 telephone lines," he said.

Segonzac said that it was not yet clear whether Satelindo would extend its contract with Alcatel after the recent acquisition of 25 percent of Satelindo's shares by the German company Deutsche Telekom. (icn)