Battle of telco cards begins in Surabaya
Battle of telco cards begins in Surabaya
Indra Harsaputra, Surabaya
Hardly a year has passed since state-owned Telkom boosted Flexi
cards; Indosat has now followed with its new product, Star One,
raising the question of whether it can made inroads into Flexi's
wireless access market in Surabaya as its initial sales target.
The Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)-based communications
era has begun in Indonesia, with Surabaya as one of the sales
areas for the related products. Just as Telkom was enjoying its
Flexi business boom, Indosat launched Star One along similar
lines in Surabaya on May 20.
As it was its latest innovation, Indosat conducted an
intensive campaign to promote the product via a variety of means,
including printed media ads, banners in the city and decorated
motorcades carrying Star One logos to introduce the new brand to
Surabaya people.
PT Indosat senior vice president for fixed wireless access
Guntur S. Siboro said that in this CDMA era his company was ready
for all-out competition against Telkom with its Flexi.
"We are prepared to face it by targeting 100,000 subscribers
in 2004 after the May 20 launch," he assured.
For Star One, Indosat is focusing on Surabaya and Jakarta as
marketing tryout areas before selling it to other regions in the
country, as the two cities are seen as offering good prospects.
"We'll reach all market sectors -- young and old people as well
as diverse social groups. Star One's tagline is 'telephones for
all'," he added.
At present, Star One has only 85 Base Transceiver Stations
(BTSs) but Guntur expressed no fear in the race against Telkom,
currently the CDMA market leader. According to him, Star One has
greater aural clarity and can be used in conjunction with the
Internet, video screening and facsimile machines faster than the
Global Positioning Relay System (GPRS).
In order to match the sales networks of Flexi numbers, which
are easily available at Telkom offices and several other outlets,
Star One has provided its subscribers with special product sales
outlets, which mostly have a purple color.
Product advantages and a large-scale promotion drive are
expected to enable Star One to shift Flexi from its position as
its major rival. Meanwhile, Flexi, as the leading brand familiar
to Surabaya consumers, is also striving to secure a maximum
number of subscribers.
Telkom's East Java regional division has recorded 80 percent
growth in the region's Flexi subscription level per month on
average, while in the early stage of its marketing at the end of
December 2003, 100,000 new subscribers were registered.
With only 96 BTSs in the province previously, Telkom plans to
add more. Its frequencies will also be improved to reduce the
number of dropped-calls that subscribers frequently complain
about. New subscribers are targeted to reach 600 by the end of
2004 -- 70 percent in Surabaya with the rest outside the city.
All these plans imply that the marketing struggle between Star
One and Flexi in Surabaya will be intense. Both will be
optimizing their moves in the search for more subscribers. Telkom
claims to have a lower call rate, while Star One, with a higher
rate than Flexi but a rate of Rp 350 per text message, boasts its
range of facilities and easy access.
Eventually, the winner will be determined by consumer choice:
We'll see.