Digital system coming on stream in Indonesia
BATAM ISLAND, Riau (JP): The rapid development of digital cellular telecommunications in Indonesia is expected to edge out the increasingly out-dated analog system.
"The utilization of the analog system in cellular radio telecommunications services in Indonesia will be over and the country will continue to develop the digital system," State Minister of Research and technology B. J. Habibie said after inaugurating a project for the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) cellular telecommunications here over the weekend.
The project, valued at Rp 12 billion (US$5.52 million), has been established by the state-owned domestic telecommunications company PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) in Batam and Bintan islands, Riau.
Habibie said that GSM, one of the main leaders in digital cellular mobile telephone systems in the world, has global network access, and that the outstation is very simple when operated internationally.
"The quality of GSM, which is derived from Europe, is better than the analog system," he said, adding that the digital system will be applied nationally.
There are currently three analog modes operated in Indonesia, including the advanced mobile phone system (AMPS-800) run by PT Elektrindo Nusantara in Jakarta, West Java and North Sumatra; by PT Centralindo Pancasakti in Central and East Java; and by PT Telekomindo Prima Bhakti in Bali, South Sulawesi and Kalimantan. PT Rajasa Hasanah Perkasa runs Nordic mobile telephones (NMT-450) in Jakarta and Bandung, West Java, while the other mode is Telkom's total access communications system, whose utilization is decreasing.
Precise
Director General of Post and Telecommunications Djakaria Purawidjaja said recently that the government has picked GSM as the precise mode for the development of digital cellular telecommunications in the country. There are two other digital technologies in telecommunications, including the American Digital Cellular (ADC) of the United States and Personal Digital Cellular (PDC) of Japan.
Besides Telkom, its subsidiary PT Satelindo also operates GSM telecommunications. Another subsidiary of Telkom, PT Ratelindo, runs fixed-cellular digital radio telephones in Jakarta and West Java.
Telkom's president Setyanto P. Santosa said that his company will establish another subsidiary next year to operate GSM cellular telecommunications nationally.
"After our success in operating the GSM project in Riau, we will operate a similar service in several other parts of the country," he said, adding that the new subsidiary will be set up next year.
He said Telkom will likely cooperate with another state company or private sector firms in establishing the subsidiary. (icn)