Government sets new phone charges

JAKARTA (JP): The government announced yesterday reductions of up to 56 percent on long distance calls and the installation of new telephone lines, and a 10 percent rise in the rate for city calls as of Jan. 1.

Minister of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications Joop Ave told a press conference at his office here yesterday that the new installation charges will be based on three classifications: business, housing and social facilities.

"The installation fee for each telephone line in Jakarta, for instance, will be lowered from Rp 1,000,000 (US$456) to Rp 900,000 ($411) for businesses, to Rp 700,000 for households and government and military offices and to Rp 560,000 ($256) for social facilities," he said.

He cited another example, saying that in Bandung, West Java, the installation charge will be lowered from Rp 750,000 ($342) to Rp 500,000 ($228) for businesses. And the monthly fee for telephones for social welfare institutions in that city will be lowered by 25 percent.

He also said that the installation charge for a cellular mobile telephone will be reduced from Rp 1,000,000 to Rp 300,000 ($137), while the air-time charge for such a telephone will be cut by 21 percent from Rp 400 to Rp 330 per minute.

Joop said the new tariff structure for long distance calls will be based on three zones instead of the five zones applied by the state-owned domestic telecommunications firm PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) since the early 1980s.

Under the new arrangements, long distance calls made within the zone of more than 1,000 kilometers will be lowered by up to 25 percent. For instance, the charge for calls from here to Jayapura in Irian Jaya will be decreased by 25 percent, from Rp 500 to Rp 400 per pulse at night.

Secretary General of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications Jonathan Parapak said that the charge on local calls will be raised from Rp 100 per pulse at present to Rp 110 early next month.

Joop also said yesterday that by the end of this year, Telkom will have established 3.54 million telephone lines, with 1.24 million of them not yet properly marketed. (icn)