AMPS cell phone operators to launch prepaid service

AMPS cell phone operators to launch prepaid service

JAKARTA (JP): Local operators of the analog system, Advanced
Mobile Phone Service (AMPS), will soon launch a prepaid billing
service in a bid to compete better with digital rivals Global
System for Mobile (GSM).

Winahyo, general manager for general administration and
services of Telesera, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday that the
new service, which is currently high in demand, would help AMPS
operators retain existing subscribers.

"We hope the launch of the new service will lessen the
tendency for customers to switch to GSM," he said.

He said that with the new service AMPS operators would be able
to survive the competition because they would soon provide cheap
and efficient products with a much better sound quality than
those offered by GSM operators.

Telesera, which serves around 6,700 users in Bali and parts of
Sumatra and Kalimantan, will launch its prepaid service on
Friday. It offers a starter package for Rp 100,000, including Rp
50,000 worth of free transmission units which are valid for 90
days.

Winahyo said the coverage of the prepaid service would be
initially limited to Bali only.

Telesera is one of the country's three AMPS operators.

The two other operators, Jakarta-based Komselindo and
Surabaya-based Metrosel, said they would launch their prepaid
service next month.

Komselindo said the service would be used for outgoing and
incoming calls, assuring it to be better than the company's
earlier service launched late last year, which was only used for
incoming calls.

Komselindo, which covers Java, Bali and parts of Sumatra and
Sulawesi, did not reveal the price of its new prepaid service.

Metrosel media relations Airin Maduretno said AMPS operators
made a tremendous effort to satisfy customers so that they would
stay on with them.

She said operators offered some customized services, such as a
popular low budget package to allow only incoming calls, a
limited group users package, a limited in town coverage package
and now the new prepaid service, to enable customers to keep
using their cellular phone during the economic crisis.

She also acknowledged that AMPS operators, which introduced
cellular phones to the country in the late 1980s, lost some
customers since the emergence of GSM operators in 1997. Many AMPS
customers were believed to have switched to GSM and subscribed to
GSM's prepaid service.

According to Telkom's report, Metrosel lost 31.9 percent of
38,990 subscribers registered as of March 31 last year, leaving
the firm with 26,528 subscribers on the same date this year.

Komselindo and Telesera each recorded slight increases of 10.6
percent and 3.9 percent to reach 66,331 subscribers and 6,792
subscribers respectively in the first quarter of 1999.

Airin, however, strongly rejected the assumption that the
dramatic shift led AMPS operators into financial disaster.

"We were never broke because of the customer migration to GSM.
And we also don't have debt problems like GSM operators do
because we do not make huge investments," she said.

Both Winahyo and Airin believed that the AMPS sector would be
much better off when the country's economy recovered.

"We have foreign investors ready to invest in the development
and upgrade of the AMPS system into the Code Division Multiple
Access (CDMA) as soon as the situation here allows it," he said.
(cst)