GSM operators prepare massive network expansion
GSM operators prepare massive network expansion
JAKARTA (JP): The country's three telecommunications operators of the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) have planed major projects to further expand their services in various provinces.
In a hearing with members of the House of Representatives yesterday, top executives of the three GSM operators, PT Satelit Palapa Indonesia (Satelindo), PT Telekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel) and PT Telekomindo, shared the same view that they should focus on better services in facing fiercer competition in the digital cellular telecommunications markets.
As the government controls both the tariffs for telephone calls and installation fee, cellular telecommunications operators in Indonesia can compete only in services.
Satelindo, partly owned by German DeTeMobil, is preparing the expansion of its GSM operations in Sumatra, Sulawesi and Kalimantan.
"In Sumatra, we plan to enter Medan, Palembang, Padang and Tanjungkarang. Our GSM will cover Pontianak, Balikpapan, Samarinda and Bontang in Kalimantan as well as Ujungpandang and Manado in Sulawesi," Satelindo's President Iwa Sewaka said.
Satelindo currently has 101,602 subscribers in Jakarta and several big cities in West, Central and East Java. The company has invested a Rp 143.64 billion (US$61.8 million) in installing 236 base transceiver stations (BTS) in 134 locations.
Satelindo's cellular director Saleh Gunawan said yesterday that his company would invest Rp 200 billion ($86.1 million) to install some 200 new BTS this year.
"We will double the number of our subscribers by the end of this year," he said, adding that roaming services with overseas GSM operators would total 40 in 1996.
Roaming services allow GSM customers to use local cellular telephones from foreign countries to call operators in Indonesia and vice versa.
Satelindo, which also operates the Palapa-C1 satellite and international calls, used equipment and technology from the French telecommunications company, Alcatel, in developing its GSM networks.
Meanwhile, Telkomsel's President Koesmarihati Sugondo told the hearing yesterday that her company would invest Rp 450 billion ($193.7 billion) this year for GSM expansion in about 17 locations in the country.
The new locations include the greater Jakarta area, Banda Aceh, Lampung and Palembang in Sumatra, Banjarmasin, Balikpapan and Samarinda in Kalimantan, Ujungpandang and Manado in Sulawesi and Ambon in Maluku.
"Telkomsel will also cover later this year the Jakarta-Bandung areas via Cianjur and Cikampek, the Jakarta-Merak route, Bogor- Sukabumi-Cianjur route, Cikampek-Cirebon-Semarang-Tuban-Surabaya route, Bandung-Yogyakarta and Yogyakarta-Surabaya routes."
Koesmarihati said that Telkomsel, which invested Rp 260 billion last year in the project, currently operates in 114 cities in 12 provinces with 34,500 subscribers.
Telkomsel's director of commerce Rudiantara said that the company targets to net a total of 120,000 subscribers this year.
He said that Telkomsel's roaming services would include Southeast Asian countries, Australia and a number of European nations this year.
Telkomsel, partly owned by the Dutch PTT Telecom, has now roaming utilization services with GSM operators in foreign countries such as Hong Kong, Australia, France, Australia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Switzerland, Finland, Norway and the Netherlands.
The country's third GSM operator, PT Telekomindo, has set up a new company called PT Excelcomindo to run a digital mobile cellular telephone system. Excelcomindo is partly owned by the American Nynex and Japanese Mitsui.
Telekomindo's Vice President Peter Djatmiko said that Excelcomindo would start its service in September in Java and Bali.
"We have allocated about $300 million for the GSM project, including the installation of some 150 BTS. We hope to register 100,000 subscribers by the end of this year," he said.
Telekomindo, currently operating the analog advanced mobile phone system, is the third and the last operator awarded by the government to operate GSM nationwide.
Peter said that in addition to Excelcomindo which will run GSM, Telekomindo will set up later this year a new company called PT Telekomindo Selular Raya to operate the advanced mobile phone system lines.
Telekomindo currently operates radio trunking telecommunications, a system in which users speak to each other via radio handsets on protected channels, and radio paging services through its subsidiaries, PT Mobilkom and PT Buana Bintang Bayu. (icn)