Govt abandons new phone bill rates

Govt abandons new phone bill rates

BANDUNG, West Java (JP): The government has canceled the new
tariff structure for telephone calls made within the area-codes
of Bandung, Semarang, Surabaya, Medan and Ujungpandang.

"We return to the system in which all calls made within the
same area code are classified as local calls," the service
director of the state-owned domestic telecommunications firm PT
Telkom, H. Soeratno, said yesterday.

The return to the old system begins today. The official stated
that payments of phone bills made prior to the yesterday's
announcement could not be refunded.

The announcement means that all phone calls made within the
greater Jakarta area, provided they are within the 021 area code,
will be registered as local calls.

Under the newly-abandoned system, all calls covering a
distance between 30 kilometers and 200 kilometers were considered
long distance calls and billed accordingly, even where a caller
had not dialed any area code.

The abandoned system, which was introduced at the beginning of
this month, immediately caused a public outcry. That system
remains in use, however, in areas outside the six big cities.

Soeratno gave detailed explanation of the tariff system which
has been reintroduced for the six big cities.

For the greater metropolitan area, for all local calls made
within a 20-kilometer range and made during busy hours -- from 9
a.m. to 3 p.m. -- each pulse will last for two minutes. A pulse
is priced at Rp 110 (about five U.S. cents).

For all calls made within a distance of 20 kilometers during
off-peak hours -- from 3 p.m. to 9 a.m. -- each pulse will last
for three minutes.

For calls made within busy hours and over a distance greater
than 20 kilometers, each pulse will last for 1.5 minutes.

For calls made during off-peak hours and over a distance
greater than 20 kilometers, each pulse will last for two minutes.
(hdj/pet/icn)