Govt raises its target for telephone lines

Govt raises its target for telephone lines

JAKARTA (JP): The government says it will install even more
telephone lines during the ongoing Sixth Five-Year Development
Plan period to end in March 1999, raising its previous target for
new telephone lines by 54 percent from five million to 7.7
million.

Director General of Post and Telecommunications Djakaria
Purawidjaja told a seminar on public relations at the Ministry of
Tourism, Post and Telecommunications yesterday that the new
target included 6.7 million fixed-telephone lines and a network
capacity for one million mobile telephones.

"We have seen that the telecommunications industry in the
country is developing well," he said.

He said mobile cellular operators were also confident that the
number of their subscribers would increase rapidly in coming
years.

"I have just received a report that there are now 450,000
cellular phone users in Indonesia, compared to 400,000 users last
week," he said.

Seven mobile cellular telephone operators run three systems in
Indonesia -- the Nordic Mobile Telephone system is operated by PT
Mobisel, the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is
operated by PT Satelindo, PT Telkomsel and PT Excelcomindo and
the Advanced Mobile Phone System is operated by PT Metrosel, PT
Telekomindo and PT Komselindo.

Djakaria said that increasing the number of mobile cellular
telephone subscribers to one million by March 1999 was realistic.

The government plans to license a number of new mobile
cellular operators of the Personal Handy-phone system and the
Digital Cordless System 1800 next year.

Djakaria said the ministry aimed to increase the country's
telephone density to four fixed-telephone lines for every 100
people by 1998, to 10 lines per 100 people by 2000 and to 20
lines per 100 people by 2020.

There are now only five million telephone lines in Indonesia
for a population of almost 200 million.

In Singapore there are 46 telephone lines for every 100
people, 13 lines for every 100 in Thailand and 6.5 lines for
every 100 in Malaysia.

State-owned PT Telkom and its five contractors are in charge
of telephone-line installation. They are to install at least 2.2
million fixed-telephone lines, and operate them and the existing
lines in five different regions under 15-year joint-operation
contracts signed in October last year.

Telkom's President Asman A. Nasution said yesterday the
company projected an annual growth rate of 19 percent in its
revenue and 21 percent in it profit until 2001.

In August, Telkom reported a 44.91 percent increase in its
profit to Rp 701.82 billion (US$299.41 million) in the first half
of 1996 over the same period of last year, while its operating
revenue rose 22 percent to Rp 945.7 billion.

Nasution said his company intended to install 13.88 million
new telephone lines by 2001.

He said that by 2001, Telkom aimed to reduce the waiting
period for new telephone lines to less than three days. Customers
now wait several weeks for new lines.

Telkom has launched a self-drive program, called T-2001, to
boost its performance to become a world-class operator by the
year 2001. (icn)