GSM phone users surge in 1st quarter of 1999

GSM phone users surge in 1st quarter of 1999

JAKARTA (JP): The number of active cellular subscribers in
Indonesia increased by 69.1 percent to over 1.37 million in the
first quarter of 1999 from 815,577 in the corresponding period of
1998, according to telecommunications company PT Telkom.

Telkom said that the steep increases between 57.2 percent and
125.5 percent were seen particularly in the number of subscribers
of the global system for mobile communications (GSM) operators.

There are currently three GSM operators, namely PT Telkomsel,
PT Satelit Palapa Indonesia (Satelindo) and PT Excelcomindo
Pratama.

Subscribers of Telkomsel increased by 57.2 percent to reach
566,167 users for the first quarter of 1999 from 360,063 for the
same period last year.

Subscribers of Satelindo surged by 108.4 percent to 491,964
users from 236,113, while subscribers of Excelcomindo doubled by
125.5 percent to reach 211,200 from 93,651 users.

According to the head of industry policy and business
cooperation of the Indonesian Cellular Telephone Association
(ATSI), Rudiantara, the increases were due to the GSM operators'
successful promotion of prepaid card products.

He said many non-GSM customers had also switched to one of the
three GSM operators.

"Many have not really quit using cellular phones and turned to
GSM, mostly as prepaid card customers. I can't give you the exact
figure of those who switched to GSM," he told The Jakarta Post
recently.

According to Telkom's report, an Advanced Mobile Phone System
(AMPS) operator, PT Metrosel Nusantara, lost 31.9 percent of
38,990 subscribers registered as of March 31 last year, leaving
the firm with only 26,528 subscribers as of March 31 this year.

Two other AMPS operators, Komselindo and PT Telesera, each
recorded only slight increases of 10.6 percent and 3.9 percent to
reach 66,331 subscribers and 6,792 subscribers respectively in
the first quarter of 1999.

Subscribers of Komselindo totaled 60,000 and Telesera's 6,535
in the first quarter of last year.

The country's only Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) operator,
Mobisel, lost 48.1 percent of its total 20,225 subscribers
registered by March 13 last year. Mobisel now serves only 10,489
customers.

Rudiantara said AMPS and NMT operators had not only lost
customers to GSM operators due to older technology but also to
limited products and services to offer customers.

The NMT system was introduced here in the mid-1980s, followed
by AMPS in the late 1980s and GSM in the early 1990s, he said.

He said unlike the AMPS and NMT operators, GSM operators
offered customers more choices of services and products.

GSM subscribers could choose the regular postpaid billing
system or the recently introduced prepaid system.

Telkomsel introduced its first value-refillable prepaid card
product called simPATI in late 1997, followed by Satelindo with
its Mentari in early 1998 and Excelcomindo with its XL-Pro in
late 1998.

Excelcomindo's corporate communications manager Ventura
Elisawati said the sales of prepaid cards far exceeds that of a
postpaid billing system, resulting in a higher number of prepaid
subscribers than postpaid.

She said Exelcomindo now have around 154,000 active prepaid
customers, compared to about 60,000 postpaid.

A Satelindo executive recently said the company sold an
average of 3,000 starter packs of Mentari prepaid cards per day
and over 10,000 Mentari refill cards per month.

The number of GSM subscribers took about 92 percent of the
total cellular users in the country.(cst)