Govt approves local switching exchanges

Govt approves local switching exchanges

SENTUL, West Java (JP): The government has approved a
telephone switching exchange produced by PT Elektrindo Nusantara,
making it the fourth "official" product in Indonesia.

It will also make Elektrindo the fourth official supplier of
switching exchanges after Siemens of Germany, NEC of Japan and
AT&T (now Lucent) of the United States.

Minister of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications Joop Ave said
here Thursday that the Agency for the Assessment and Application
of Technology (BPPT) had approved the switching, called SENA, of
Elektrindo after finding that the product was technologically
acceptable.

"Any new technology to be applied in Indonesia must be
assessed by BPPT. Before approving SENA, the board's chairman
B.J. Habibie just had one question, the technology recourse base
of the product which is wholly Indonesian," he said after
inaugurating new telecommunications infrastructure installed by
the state-owned PT Telkom in Greater Jakarta.

In 1989, three companies, Siemens of Germany, NEC of Japan and
AT&T (now Lucent) of the United States, were selected to carry
out digital-telephone projects in Indonesia through a tender
overseen by BPPT chaired by Habibie who is also state minister of
research and technology.

The three companies have since become the country's suppliers
of Telkom which cut its 12 different central switching exchanges
to just three.

NEC set up a partnership with the Humpuss Group, which is run
by President Soeharto's youngest son Hutomo Mandala Putra, while
AT&T tied up with a company jointly owned by the President's
eldest daughter Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana and S.A. Habibie, a
younger brother of Minister Habibie. Siemens continues its
partnership with the state-owned telecommunications equipment
maker PT Inti which is also chaired by Habibie.

A partnership with a local company is a prerequisite for
foreign companies to operate in the telecommunications sector.

"The government does not have to amend any regulation or make
a new one as SENA has just added the new accepted switching,"
Joop said.

Telkom's telecommunications facilities inaugurated Thursday
included telephone centers with 608,488 lines and local networks
with 751,578 lines and 66,160 canal transmissions. Some of the
facilities use Elektrindo's products.

Elektrindo, which produces the digital central switching
exchange SENA, is a telecommunications equipment firm affiliated
to the Bimantara Group. The group is controlled by Bambang
Trihatmodjo, a son of President Soeharto.

SENA is the new generation of STK-1000, which has a capacity
of 1,000 telephone lines. SENA's capacity is 5,000 lines.

Both SENA and STK-1000, which are domestically designed,
already meet quality standards set by the Geneva-based
International Telecommunications Union.

SENA is an expansion of STK-1000, which had a capacity of
1,000 telephone lines.

Suryatin Setiawan, head of Telkom's research and technology
department, said the switching had been developed to be
compatible with Telkom's network.

"Elektrindo and Telkom have jointly developed the switching to
result in a qualified domestic product."

Elektrindo has spent between US$6 million and $9 million in
developing SENA, according to the company's business development
manager Tjahja Tjugiarto.

The company plans to improve the switching exchanges to have
higher capacity to compete with foreign products which are now
able to provide hundreds of lines, he said. (icn)