Cambodians make more calls

Cambodians make more calls

JAKARTA (JP): Cambodians are making phone calls at twice the number they were a year ago, according PT Indosat, the Indonesian state-owned company which has a stake in some of the current telephone projects in Cambodia.

Indosat spokesman J.B. Basuki said the 200 percent increase in the number of local calls made by Cambodians follows the restoration of the telephone networks there last year.

Indosat has a 49 percent stake in Camintel, the company established in 1994 to repair and renovate the network which was vandalized during political upheavals the previous two years. The other 51 percent equity is held by the Cambodian Ministry of Post and Telecommunications.

In the first phase, Camintel renovated various buildings, including its headquarters in Phnom Penh, and devices in 20 provinces, he said.

Camintel hopes to complete expansion of the capacity of telephone centrals in nine provinces this month. "In April, the company expects to see the completion of capacity expansion projects in nine other provinces and billing systems in 20 provinces," Basuki said.

Other short-term projects on the horizon include the installation of 2,500 subscriber wireless local loop system and public telephones in strategic locations.

In 1994 Indosat beat seven rivals for the US$15 million project to restore the telecommunication networks.

The networks were laid down by Indosat, PT Telkom of Indonesia and Australia's Telstra in the early 1990s to support the UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia, which was overseeing the first democratic election since the end of the civil war.

The system, using very small aperture terminal technology through Indonesia's Palapa satellite, were disrupted and vandalized for two years after UN forces left the Indochinese country. (icn)