Government will not raise telephone rates next year: Minister
Government will not raise telephone rates next year: Minister
JAKARTA (JP): The government will not raise telephone rates
next year unless the country's economy shows a marked
improvement, Minister of Communications Agum Gumelar said on
Monday.
Agum said raising phone rates before telephone users had fully
regained their purchasing power would only elicit sharp criticism
from the public
"So there will not be a rate hike in telephone services next
year," he told the House of Representatives Commission IV for
telecommunications, transportation and infrastructure.
According to data from state-owned telecommunications company
PT Telkom, 185,014 customers -- comprising 135,083 residential
subscribers, 49,272 business subscribers and 659 social
subscribers -- canceled their service in the first nine months of
the year due to the economic crisis.
This figure is an improvement over the 201,201 cancellations
in the same period last year.
The data further stated that Telkom and its joint operation
agreement (KSO) contractors had a total of 5.69 million
subscribers in the third quarter of the year, a 9.11 percent
increase over the 5.22 million subscribers in the same period
last year.
The country's telephone rates -- including local and domestic
long-distance charges, installation charges for fixed-line
telephones, monthly subscription charges and peak and off-peak
hours charges -- are adjusted every year by the government based
on the Price Cap Tariff Decree issued in October 1995.
According to the decree, the government decides whether to
raise telephone rates and the amount of the rate increase based
on recommendations from telecommunications operators, including
Telkom and cellular phone operators.
For cellular phone services, the government only determines
rates for regular services, while cellular phone operators have
the right to set rates for prepaid services.
Director General of Post and Telecommunications Sasmito Dirdjo
also said the government would not modify the existing
arrangement for peak and off-peak hours, as recently suggested by
Telkom.
"There is no change either in the amount or structure of the
rate system for telephone services planned for next year. It may
be changed only if economic conditions allow," he said.
Telkom recently proposed a change in the peak and off-peak
hours arrangement for fixed-line telephones to avoid call
congestion during peak hours.
Under the proposal, telephone users would be required to pay a
surcharge of Rp 25 between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.
The government, however, elected to maintain the existing 25
percent surcharge from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Separately, the Indonesian Telecommunications Society (Mastel)
suggested on Monday the government raise air-time charges for
cellular phone usage.
Mastel chairman Sukarno Abdulrachman said the buying power of
cellular phone users had recovered much faster than that of
fixed-line users.
"The recovery is clearly seen in the recent steady growth in
the sales of mobile phones and prepaid cards," he said.
According to Telkom data, the number of active cellular phone
subscribers jumped by 138.8 percent to 1.82 million in the first
nine months of 1999 from 762,602 in the corresponding period the
previous year. (cst)