Cable & Wireless, Trikora form venture

JAKARTA (JP): Cable & Wireless Marine of Britain and PT Trikora Lloyd have set up a joint venture company to provide submarine cable surveying as well as installation and maintenance services in Indonesia.

"This is part of our plan to provide marine cable installation and maintenance services for the rapidly growing and increasingly important fiber optic telecommunications cable network in this country," Boedihardjo Sastrohadiwirjo, chief commissioner of the joint venture firm, said yesterday.

Boedihardjo, who is also the chairman of the Boedihardjo Transport and Shipping Group, the holding company of PT Trikora Lloyd, said that the joint venture, called PT MaCaSer Indonesia, will be 55 percent owned by Cable & Wireless and 45 percent by PT Trikora.

The joint venture firm is initially capitalized at US$1 million, he said.

"PT MaCaSer Indonesia is the first company here to specialize in telecommunication cable installation and maintenance. Until now the business has been dominated by foreign companies," said Boedihardjo.

He added that the most important thing expected from the joint venture is the transfer of technology to Indonesia.

MaCaSer's president, Reginald W. Ross, said that Cable & Wireless Marine has much experience in the Asian market, including Indonesia. "It has just completed the installation of two international fiber optic cables, called Jasuraus link -- which links Port Hedland in Northwest, Australia, to Jakarta and Surabaya in Indonesia," he said.

He said that in March the British company joined the Daya Mitra Malindo consortium, which was awarded by the state-owned telecommunication company PT Telkom a 15-year license to operate and develop fixed telephone networks in Kalimantan.

Ross said that Cable & Wireless holds a 25 percent interest in Daya Mitra Malindo.

The consortium, he said, has awarded a $250 million contract to Tomen Co. of Japan to install 237,000 telephone lines in Kalimantan. "The construction will start this month," he said.

According to Ross, Indonesia is rapidly increasing its investment in telecommunications and the domestic telecommunication operators. PT Telkom and PT Indosat are planning to install up to 10,000 kilometers of domestic cable systems in the next five years.

Asked to estimate the total investment needed for the 10,000 km cable installation, he said: "It depends on the condition of the areas where the cables will be installed."

But he said that the cost of installing submarine cable network ranges from $16,000 to $20,000 per kilometer. (13)