Govt to name firm to operate public phones
Govt to name firm to operate public phones
JAKARTA (JP): The government has decided to give permission to
one company to manage public telephones outside the capital.
Minister of Tourism, Post and Telecommunication Joop Ave told
reporters here yesterday that the company allowed to manage the
public phones would not be a large one.
Presently, he said, more than three private companies manage
public telephones. He did not mention the names of the firms.
Other businesses which are specifically open to small-scale
firms and cooperatives are the wartel (telecommunications stalls)
and Internet service providers.
Joop said that public telephones were especially needed to
cater to the large number of paging services currently operating
in the country because people receiving paged messages often need
immediate access to a telephone.
He said that two years ago the only two companies given
permission to operate nationwide paging services had listed
24,000 customers.
Joop added that the prospects of the paging business seemed
good, so the government allowed eight other companies to operate
paging services throughout the country.
"Nationwide services needed large investments, so this was
opened to large companies," he said.
The smaller scope regional or local paging services have been
reserved for small-scale companies. "Currently some 90 small-
scale companies provide such services," Joop said.
In about a year, the number of customers using paging services
reached 500,000. "Therefore, I have increased the target for the
Sixth Five Year Development Plan period from one million
customers (of paging services) to three million," Joop said.
But he considered that the number of public phones in the
country as inadequate -- both in terms of quantity and quality --
to meet the increasing demand generated by paging services and
other factors.
The government, Joop said, has stipulated that three percent
of the five million telephone lines to be installed by the end of
the development plan period in March 1999 must be allocated for
public phones.
The government recently awarded five joint operation contracts
for telecommunications facilities in Kalimantan, Central Java,
Sumatra, West Java and the nation's eastern islands to private
sector companies.
Of the five million telephone lines to be installed by the end
of the development plan period, two million have been set aside
for private companies under joint operation contracts, while the
other three million, to be installed in the greater Jakarta area
and East Java, will be managed by the state-owned domestic
telecommunications operator, PT Telkom. (pwn)