Dayamitra to install 118,000 phone lines in Kalimantan

JAKARTA (JP): PT Dayamitra Malindo, the private company operating a telecommunications network in Kalimantan, announced here yesterday that it would install 118,000 new lines on the island by the end of this year.

The company said it would install 237,000 lines by March 1999; the government-set target for Dayamitra's joint-operation contract with state-owned PT Telkom.

The company said the region will have over half a million lines by the end of the century.

"Dayamitra is developing telephone lines in more than 40 locations in Kalimantan. We plan to provide telephone services to each of the 180 subdistricts on the island," company commissioner Tanri Abeng said.

Dayamitra is one of five private firms awarded joint operation contracts in 1996 by Telkom to install two million lines by March 1999, and manage them along with the existing ones until 2010.

Dayamitra is owned by Cable & Wireless, PT Intidaya Sistelindomitra, PT Mitracipta Saranusa, TM Communications, American International Assurance Company Ltd and Kopthindo cooperative.

"We have committed more than US$10 million to the development of an information system, including investment in one of the most advanced telecommunications planning systems in Southeast Asia," Abeng said. (icn)