Govt to speed up fixed line development

JAKARTA (JP): The government will accelerate the development of telecommunications networks to reach a ratio of 20 fixed telephone lines for every 100 people by the year 2020.

"If we fail to reach the figure, Indonesia will be classified as an underdeveloped nation," Director General of Post and Telecommunications Djakaria Purawidjaja told reporters here yesterday.

Currently, there are five million telephone lines in Indonesia for a population of almost 200 million. The number of mobile cellular telephone subscribers is estimated at 300,000. In Jakarta alone, the fixed telephone line density now stands at 11 per 100.

"In the future, both fixed and cellular telephones will be mutually important," Djakaria said.

Indonesia is currently developing telecommunications networks and infrastructures -- including fiber optics, submarine cables, terrestrial gateways and satellites -- for both fixed telecommunications lines and cellular services.

"We will learn from what is happening in Japan now," Djakaria said. "The telephone line density in that country is 40 per 100 people."

He said that the total population in Indonesia in 2020 is predicted to reach 250 million. "The number of fixed telephone lines in that year should reach at least 20 percent of the total population, while the number of mobile cellular telephone lines should be between 10 percent and 20 percent of the country's total number of telephone lines," he predicted.

Compared with Japan and most countries grouped in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Indonesia still lags behind in telephone density. The figure in Indonesia is less than 1.8 as compared to 46 in Singapore, 13 in Thailand and 6.5 in Malaysia.

The government has set a target for the establishment of at least 6.5 million additional telephone lines during the ongoing Sixth Five-Year Development Plan period ending in March 1999.

In its latest annual report, the state-owned domestic telecommunications firm PT Telkom announced that its network development plan exceeds the government's target and calls for the nationwide construction of approximately 6.5 million lines during five years, ending on Dec. 31, 1998. This will increase the total number of telephone lines in Indonesia to 8.9 million.

Djakaria said that the government must work hard to reach a ratio of four fixed telephone lines for each 100 people by 1998, and 10 per 100 people by 2000 in order to reach the ratio of 20 per 100 people by 2020.

"We are optimistic that Telkom will be able to market any telephone lines it has developed, because the country's income per capita has always been growing," he said.

"Telkom has changed its former 6-3-1 strategy which means to offer six lines to businesses, three to government offices and one to households for each 10 fixed telephone lines the company markets," he said. "The target is now 5-3-2." he said. (icn)