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.