Foreign firms interested in cordless phone business
Foreign firms interested in cordless phone business
JAKARTA (JP): Six foreign telecommunications operators have expressed an interest in participating in the ownership of PT Telepoint Nusantara, a private firm which operates cordless telephones.
The company's managing director, Ali Chendra, said yesterday that Telepoint is looking for a strategic partner to strengthen and expand its business in telecommunications.
"We will not decide on a partner in the near future as we will look for more proposals. We will start the selection after receiving 10 proposals," he said, adding that the selection process might take a year.
The company is licensed by the Ministry of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications to operate cordless telephones in the greater Jakarta area. In the first step, Telepoint services will just be local calls. The government will possibly later license Telepoint to operate nationally as well as serving long distance calls.
Different from mobile cellular phones used for two-way telecommunications, the cordless telephones, developed in Britain in 1984, are only able to make outgoing calls.
The billing charge is Rp 150 (6.5 U.S. cents) per three minutes, while the state-owned domestic telecommunications operator PT Telkom charges Rp 110. Telepoint will pay Telkom based on the normal billing charge.
Ali refused to name the six firms expressing interest in buying Telepoint's shares, saying that they are from European countries, Hong Kong, the United States and Japan.
He said that after several foreign telecommunications firms succeeded in participating in the fixed telephone line projects with Telkom, other foreign telecommunication firms are still interested in taking roles in the country's similar businesses.
"Cordless telephones, which are very simple in technology, will likely be profitable because we don't have to invest in overlay infrastructure like the operators of mobile cellular phones must do," he said. "But our company has the ability to expand into personal communications service and wireless local loop businesses."
Telepoint, which received both technical and operational licenses from the government on June 13 and Nov. 10 respectively, plans to officially launch its service in January next year.
One cordless telephone will be sold at around Rp 750,000 (US$328) and the monthly subscribing fee Rp 25,000.
Ali said that Telepoint will invest up to Rp 35 million to install 3,500 base stations in the greater Jakarta area. "Now we have installed some 200 base stations."
Telepoint, set up with an investment of US$25 million in 1995, is 5 percent owned by Kopostel, 5 percent by the cooperative of the employees from the Ministry of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications, 20 percent by Merdeka Kerta Raharja (a foundation of employees of the office of the coordinating minister for political affairs and security), 45 percent by Telepoint's president Romeo Sibih and 25 percent by Ali.
"We expect to attract some 100,000 subscribers in the first 12 months of operation, with radio paging users, students, housewives, salesmen and medium-scale executives as our target market," Ali said. (icn)