Cellular phone operators lose Rp 200b on bills
Cellular phone operators lose Rp 200b on bills
JAKARTA (JP): Local cellular telephone operators have lost Rp
200 billion (US$26.66 million) due to unpaid customer bills, the
Association of Cellular Telecommunication Indonesia (ATSI) said
yesterday.
The association's chairman, Soedjono Kramadibrata, said the
companies could not trace many of their debtors because they had
submitted false identities and addresses when applying for an
account.
"Competition between cellular operators made the companies
strive to attract customers by offering easily obtainable
accounts," he said after the signing of a memorandum of
understanding (MOU) to fight customer fraud.
"This condition caused companies to be slack in verifying the
data of their applicants, and gave way to bad customers," he
said.
These customers abused the situation to change from operator
to operator, leaving their bills unpaid, he said.
"In Komselindo alone, bad debts account for 20 to 30 percent
of our total (projected) revenue," said Soedjono, who is also
president of PT Komselindo, one of the country's cellular
providers.
He said there was not an institution which could provide
verification of customer data.
Cellular operators could not obtain data on potential
customers from competitors in the past because the companies were
unwilling to give out customer information.
Under the MOU signed yesterday, the country's seven cellular
operators agreed to establish a customer data verification center
to eliminate fraud. The database facility will be available in
July, Soedjono said.
It will enable the mobile phone operators to verify the data
submitted by the applicants of their services.
The companies will be able to check whether their applicants
have previously been customers of other operators and have left
unsettled bills, he said.
The country's seven mobile operators use three different
systems in cellular mobile telecommunication services.
The digital GSM is operated by PT Telkomsel, PT Satelindo and
PT Excelcomindo.
The analog system, Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS), is
operated by PT Metrosel Nusantara, PT Telesera and Komselindo.
PT Mobisel operates the Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT-450), the
analog service primarily installed in vehicles run by PT Mobisel.
The association said the number of cellular users grew by 100
percent last year.
Despite the monetary crisis, which has slashed the rupiah's
value against the dollar by about 70 percent, growth in the
number of cellular customers will be about 50 percent this year,
he said.
He said the number of cellular users currently totaled between
900,000 and 1.3 million.
The association also urged the government to raise cellular
phone tariffs.
"However much the rate increase, it would not be enough to
return our high investment in this business," Soedjono said.
"However big the rise is, it would still be like a drop of
water in the dessert," he said.
He said most of the components in the mobile phone business
were imported. About 90 percent of investments are made in U.S.
dollars.
"This is a heavy burden on us," he said.
Soedjono estimated the seven operators' turnover to be about
Rp 1.8 trillion a year. (das)