Association wants one rate for local calls

JAKARTA (JP): The Association of Telecommunication Kiosk Owners called yesterday on the government to eliminate the differences in local telephone rates to avoid confusion over tariffs.

The association's general chairman Ahmad Daulay said yesterday many telecommunication kiosk owners ended up charging their customers a higher rate to avoid confusion caused by PT Telkom's charges.

"There is no cheating in the telecommunication kiosks, there is just misunderstanding," Daulay said, referring to a recent allegation that many telecommunication kiosks cheated on their customers.

He said Telkom divided the rates of local phone calls under three classifications: local, local one and local two.

A local charge means the call is made from an area outside of the metropolitan area to an area as far as 30 kilometers away, he said.

A local one call is made from the metropolitan area to an area up to 20 kilometers away, while local two is made to an area 20 to 30 kilometers away.

Only PT Telkom could determine the rate according to distance, while equipment owned by the telecommunication kiosks could not determine the vicinity of the call's destination, Daulay said.

To avoid losing money, kiosks would use the local two rate classification for all local phone calls, he said.

"So it is not true that the kiosks overcharged their customers by using illegal devices," he said.

City Police recently closed down two telecommunication kiosks in Jakarta, alleging they had deceived their customers by using illegal software which increased telephone rates.

According to the police, the kiosks used an illegal diskette which multiplied rate tariffs, instead of using the diskette provided by PT Telkom.

Weekly magazine Tiras quoted the head of the Jakarta office of the Ministry of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications, Pudjo Basuki, as saying that the law enforcement's conduct and reaction to the alleged kiosks was without compunction and was wrongly based.

"The allegation was not at all true," Pudjo was quoted as saying.

Daulay dismissed the allegation that the kiosks were using illegal software.

"As far as we know, all the telecommunication kiosks use the same software provided by PT Telkom to determine phone tariffs," he said.

According to him, there are 3,000 association members across the country. He said a kiosk with four telephone booths required Rp 60 million (US$17,647) investment.

A kiosk usually makes between Rp 300,000 and Rp 400,000 daily, he said. (das)