Govt to install more telephone lines by 1999
CIMAHI, West Java (JP): The government plans to add at least 1.5 million telephone lines to the five million targeted to be installed during the ongoing Sixth Five-Year Development Plan (Repelita VI) which ends in March 1999.
Both Director General of Post and Telecommunications Djakaria Purawidjaja and the president of the state-owned domestic telecommunications provider PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom), Asman A. Nasution, said that the planned installation of five million telephone lines within the current Repelita VI period was a minimum target.
"It will be very good for everybody if there more than five million telephone lines will be installed," Nasution said after attending a ceremony for the awarding of an inter-connection test certificate to PT Aria West International here on Saturday.
The government originally planned to install at least five million lines within the current Repelita VI period, of which some 2.2 million will be established by five private firms under 15-year joint operation contracts with Telkom, while the other three million lines will be installed in the greater Jakarta area and East Java by Telkom itself.
"The government will soon announce the new target. A special team is still discussing the matter after consulting with officials from the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas)," Djakaria said.
He refused to disclose a particular quantity, saying that Minister of Tourism Post and Telecommunications Joop Ave would soon determine the matter.
In its latest annual report, Telkom announced that its network development plan exceeds the government's target and calls for the nationwide construction of approximately 6.5 million lines the during five years ending on Dec. 31, 1998. This will bring the total telephone lines in Indonesia by that date to 8.9 million.
It's not clear, however, whether or not the additional telephone lines will be installed in the greater Jakarta area and East Java, two sites which will remain under the management and operation of Telkom.
Certification
On Saturday, Aria West, a joint venture of US West International (with 35 percent of the shares), the Asian Infrastructure Fund (12.5 percent) and PT Artimas Kencana Murni (52.5 percent), accepted the test certificate from Djakaria for its wireless local loop operation here, a town about five kilometers from Bandung, the capital of West Java.
The company, one of the five private firms awarded 15-year concessions by Telkom, is responsible in the first phase to install and operate 500,000 lines by 1999 after taking over the operation of some 425,000 existing telephone lines in West Java in January. The second phase is the operation of Telkom facilities in West Java by Aria until 2010.
Aria West, using Digital Cordless Telephone System (DCTS) equipment supplied by NEC of Japan, demonstrated on Saturday its telephone connections to Serang in West Java, Pamanukan in East Java, Denver in the United States and Hong Kong.
Aria West's president, John G. Vondras, said that his company would be able to install up to 650,000 lines or 30 percent more than the contracted lines.
Some analysts believe that the West Java concession will probably be the most profitable among the five telecommunications contract areas.
Aria West has signed an agreement with four leading arrangers, including Chase Bank, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Credit Lyonnais and Sanwa Bank, to raise US$615 million in project finance facilities to fund the establishment of the 500,000 telephone lines in West Java.
The company has paid Rp 284 billion ($120.7 million) in fees this year to Telkom as compensation for the operation of its existing telephone networks in West Java. (icn)