Companies question telecom tenders

Companies question telecom tenders

JAKARTA (JP): Telecommunication companies yesterday questioned
the government's openness concerning qualifications to bid for
contracts on the installation of two million telephone lines over
the coming five years.

"Consortia failing in the pre-qualifications are not well-
informed about the reasons they lost their chance," the chairman
of the Jakarta chapter of the Indonesian Association of Domestic
Telecommunications Firms (Apnatel), I.Z. Audy Tambunan, said
yesterday.

He said the government has vowed that the tenders for the
installation of two million telephone lines in the coming five
years will be held openly.

Minister of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications Joop Ave said
earlier that investors should not be worried about bids because
their selection will be held by an inter-ministerial team.

The government chose 12 consortia on Sept. 9 to take part in
the tenders for the installing of two million telephone lines.

During the current Five Year Development Plan (Repelita VI)
period, the government has targeted the construction of five
million new telephone lines, of which three million lines will be
installed by the state-owned domestic telecommunications company,
PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom), while the other two million
lines will be offered to private companies.

A total of 30 consortia, comprising of both foreign and
domestic companies and cooperatives, have applied to install the
two million lines, which will be done in various parts of the
country other than Jakarta and East Java.

Only five

A spokesman for the Jakarta office of Telkom, D. Sinaga, told
The Jakarta Post yesterday that the government will likely choose
only five consortia to install the two million lines.

Audy also said yesterday that any winners of the telephone
contracts will be required to use domestic products.

The government require the tender documents to be submitted
within three months, beginning late September, and the contracts
will most likely be signed in the first quarter of next year.

The 12 consortia which have passed the pre-qualification
include the consortium of Astratel and France Telecom; Elektrindo
Nusantara and Cable & Wireless of Britain; Bukaka and Singapore
Telecom; Telekomindo and Nynex of the United States, Krisna Duta
and Korea Telecom; Kartika Eka Paksi, Sinar Mas and Bundespost of
Germany, Nusa Telekomindo and GTE of the U.S.; Centralindo
Pancasakti and Bell Canada; Maharani Teletama, British Columbia
Telecom and New Zealand Telecom.

Those failing to pass the pre-qualification include the
consortium of Bakrie Electronics and PTT Netherlands; Citra
Indobell and Bell Atlantic of the U.S.; Sekar Langgeng,
cooperative of BPPT and NTT of Japan; Catur Yasa and DeTe Mobile
of Germany.(icn)