AT&T secures $26.9m contract form PT Tekom

AT&T secures $26.9m contract form PT Tekom

JAKARTA (JP): United States communication services firm AT&T
has won a US$26.9 million contract from state-owned PT
Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) to provide operation management
assistance.

The agreement, called the Integrated Management Services (IMS)
On-Site Support and Implementation contract, was signed here
yesterday.

Under the contract, AT&T, in cooperation with U.S. firm Lucent
Technologies, will help Telkom for 16 months to develop methods
and procedures, provide operational knowledge and prepare the
hardware and software specifications being acquired from Lucent.

"The collaboration will further our step toward becoming a
world class operator by the year 2001 as stated in our TELKOM
2001 Program," Dadad Kustiwa, Telkom's Chief Operating Officer
said after the signing ceremony.

2001 program

The TELKOM 2001 program emphasizes modernization throughout
the firm's services.

Dadad said the program covered several aspects of running a
telecommunications business including network planning and
operations, interconnection, tariffing and charging, fraud
prevention, product and services marketing and customer care.

He said he was optimistic that the cooperation would increase
Telkom's network availability to 70 percent for long distance
phone calls and 80 percent for local calls.

It will cut the processing time for new telephone connections
to three days. Now it could take as long as a year, he said. The
collaboration would also improve the efficiency of Telkom's
staff, he said.

"By 2001, we expect to have one Telkom employee to serve 200
customers, compared to the current ratio of one worker to 90
customers," he said.

The collaboration is the second phase of the knowledge
transfer program which began in 1995.

Last year AT&T and Lucent conducted a series of training and
assistance programs for Telkom's management.

Dadad said his company had invested about Rp 150 billion on
hardware and software for the IMS project.

AT&T now serves over 90 million customers worldwide. The
company's annual revenue exceeded US$52 billion last year.

Lucent Technologies was formed as a result of AT&T's
restructuring and became fully independent in 1996.

Its subsidiary Lucent Technologies Network Systems Indonesia,
a joint venture with PT Citra Telekomunikasi Indonesia, has
provided Telkom with infrastructure and network technology since
its establishment in 1990. (das)