Govt to update telecoms policy

JAKARTA (JP): The government will continue to update its telecommunication policy as part of its commitment to liberalizing the information technology market, a minister said Friday.

Minister of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications Joop Ave said in Bandung, West Java, the updating of telecommunication regulations would provide stronger legal foundations and clear guidelines for the operation of telecommunications-related companies.

"A parameter is, for example, needed in determining the ideal number telecommunications operators, interfaces, interconnection tariffs and traffic volumes," he said after inaugurating a PT Telkom laboratory center.

The government plans to submit its latest reports on Indonesia's telecommunications industry and policies to the World Trade Organization's (WTO) telecommunications groups in Gevena on Jan. 30.

The meeting will be part of the latest round of multilateral negotiations to try to wrap up an international accord on liberalizing the world's telecommunications markets.

Fifty nations will be represented at the negotiations and they have a month to reach an agreement before the Feb. 15. deadline.

Meanwhile speaking separately Telkom's financial director Harry Supangkat said Telkom would reinvest its revenue from an increase in local call prices.

Early this year the government raised local telephone calls 4.54 percent from Rp 110 (US$0.04) to Rp 115 a pulse (every 1.5, two or three minutes, depending on distances and time periods).

"Telkom will use the revenue from the local call increase to invest in other telecommunications projects," he said.

He refused to give further details.

Telkom's net profit from January 1996 to September 1996 was $US481 million, up 28.91 percent from the same period the previous year.

The company's operating income rose to $664 million over the same period, up 15.8 percent, while call traffic rose 28.1 percent to 25.93 billion pulses over the nine months from 20.24 billion in the same period last year. (icn)