Govt opens bidding on telecom tender
JAKARTA (JP): The government yesterday opened the registration for the tender of the construction of two million telephone lines which will be assigned to private firms during this Sixth Five Year Development Plan (Repelita VI) period.
Spokesman for the Ministry of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications Sjamsuddin Tanuatmadja said yesterday that the tender, open until March 21 next year, is only open to the 12 consortia which passed the pre-qualification.
He said the consortia can obtain bidding forms at the ministry up until Dec. 1.
The government selected 12 out of the 30 consortia that participated in the pre-qualification.
The government expects to have five million telephone lines installed within the Repelita VI period, of which two million lines will be offered to private companies. The state-owned domestic telecommunications company PT Telkom plans to establish the other three million lines with a total investment of Rp 15 trillion (US$6.85 billion).
All of the 12 consortia, which were selected by an inter- ministerial team comprising of officials of various government institutions and experts, include both foreign and domestic companies and cooperatives. The government expects foreign companies to contribute high technology and equity.
The companies involved in the 12 consortia include Telstra of Australia, Astratel, France Telecom, Elektrindo Nusantara, Cable & Wireless of Britain, Bukaka, Singapore Telecom, Telekomindo, Nynex of the United States, Krisna Duta, Korea Telecom, Kartika Eka Paksi, Sinar Mas, Bundespost of Germany, Nusa Telekomindo, GTE of the United States, Centralindo Pancasakti, Bell Canada, Maharani Teletama, British Columbia Telecom, New Zealand Telecom, Aditaruna Arif Pratama, US Sprint, Intidaya, Sistelindo Mitra and Malaysia Telecom
Top officials at the ministry were evasive when asked how many consortia will be selected to install the two million telephone lines, but sources at Telkom said that there will likely be only five winners in the tender.(icn)