Cable & Wireless, Trikora form venture
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)