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)