Government may change joint operation deals in telecoms sector
JAKARTA (JP): The government may change the 15-year contracts awarded to five companies to install and operate the country's telecommunications networks outside Jakarta and East Java before they expire in 2010, sources said yesterday.
Telecommunications industry sources said that the government had prepared an amendment to the telecommunications law, including an article dealing with the joint-operation schemes awarded to the five companies.
"There will possibly be a policy to change the build, operate and transfer plan in the joint-operation scheme to a build, operate and own plan," one of the sources said.
The sources said that the law revision would lead to a change in status for the five companies into a joint venture with PT Telkom.
In October 1995, Telkom awarded 15-year joint-operation contracts, popularly called KSO, to five Indonesian-foreign joint ventures to install 2,256,487 telephone lines and operate them along with existing lines.
In January 1996, Telkom officially handed over the management and operation of the telecommunications networks outside Jakarta to the five companies.
The five companies include: PT Pramindo Ikat Nusantara, which is responsible for installing some 516,000 new telephone lines in Sumatra; PT Aria West International, which will install 500,000 lines in West Java; PT Mitra Global Telekomunikasi Indonesia, which will install 400,000 lines in Central Java; PT Daya Mitra Malindo, which will install 237,000 lines in Kalimantan; and PT Bukaka Singtel which will install 403,000 lines in the country's eastern region covering Sulawesi, Maluku, Irian Jaya and Nusa Tenggara.
The five projects are part of the government's program in telecommunications development during the current Sixth Five-Year Development Program which will end in March 1999.
Each of the joint-venture companies is responsible for operating and managing telephone lines in its contract area for 15 years starting January 1996. They were each given only three years to install the number of new lines specified in their contracts.
During the contract period, the private firms are required to pay minimum telkom revenues. A 30-percent portion of total revenue will also go to Telkom.
But secretary-general of the Ministry of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications Jonathan L. Parapak said over the weekend that the government had not thought about altering the status of KSO contractors.
Director General of Post and Telecommunications Djakaria Purawidjaja said that under the telecommunications law the involvement of private operators in the Indonesian telecommunications industry was permitted only on condition that such firms cooperated with state-owned companies under a joint- operation, joint-venture or management agreement.
"There was the revenue-sharing scheme applied to the cellular business, but it has been changed to a joint-venture scheme. Such a scheme is the closest possibility of being adapted to KSO contractors, but there has never been any discussion about that," he said.
The five KSO contractors, which held a regular meeting here yesterday, refused to comment.
"We don't have any comment or information at this stage," spokesman for Aria West, Lawrence Chandra, said. (icn)