Indonesia gears up for two-and-a-half generation cellular service
Indonesia gears up for two-and-a-half generation cellular service
By Tantri Yuliandini
JAKARTA (JP): While the world is hung up on the introduction
of the first third-generation (3-G) handset by Japan's NTT
DoCoMo, Indonesia is gearing up for the rollout of the first two-
and-a-half generation technology, the General Packet Radio
Service (GPRS).
Believed to be the necessary transition between second-
generation cellular technology and 3-G, the GPRS will enable high
speed mobile data transmissions of applications, such as mobile
Internet browsing, e-mail and "push technologies", which is
another name for information on demand.
In the meantime, 3-G mobile technology, introduced by NTT
DoCoMo at the end of last month, will enable users to relay video
images and download music, which will be made possible with a zip
data up to 40 times faster than current mobile phones.
The video-phones introduced by DoCoMo include a video camera
so callers are able to see each other on phone screens.
State-owned telecommunications companies PT Telkom and PT
Indosat are expected to be the first companies to provide the
GPRS service in the second half of this year.
Both companies will make their debut with the global system
for mobile communications (GSM) at 1800 Megahertz, or the DCS-
1800, baiting future subscribers with promises of GPRS.
This is needed to provide them with a niche in the already
established cellular market in which three GSM operators are
currently leading -- PT Telkomsel, PT Satelindo and PT
Excelcomindo Pratama.
While some skeptics say that Indonesia is a largely voice
market and that it will take a long time still for data
transmission via cellular phones to take off here, statistics
prove the contrary.
The introduction of inter-operator short message service (SMS)
early last month increased the number of SMS traffic by more than
half, which is a clear indication of the high interest in data
exchange between mobile users, president of PT Ericsson Indonesia
Mats H. Olsson said.
Satelindo cellular director Jan Nilsson said that the
company's prepaid service SMS traffic rose from about 5,000
messages a day before the inter-operator service to about 2
million a day.
Excelcom's SMS traffic also surged to 1.2 million messages a
day from about 800 messages, general manager for marketing A.
Putranto said.
Taking advantage of the momentum are mobile technology
providers, such as Sweden's Ericsson and Germany's Siemens.
Providing technology to Telkom's multimedia project, the
TelkoMobile, Siemens said it was ready to launch the DCS-1800
service along with Telkom in August this year.
Siemens Indonesia general manager for mobile networks Peter
Donnerbauer said that the company had so far confirmed 80 sites
for the construction of base transceiver stations (BTS) and
expects to have constructed between 120 and 150 BTS by the end of
the month.
He said that Siemens had invested a total of 62 million euros
(about US$52.7 million) for the construction stage of
TelkoMobile.
Besides providing technology, Siemens is also prepared to
provide various applications in support of GPRSm, such as mobile
shopping and location dependent services, applications that, in
fact, are already provided on wireless application protocol
(WAP).
However, the introduction of WAP in the world has been stunted
by its high cost and slow transmission.
"WAP is very expensive because it is charged by the amount of
airtime used. With GPRS, WAP will become more attractive,"
Siemens Indonesia mobile data manager for communication on air
Suluh Tripambudi R. said.
He explained that by using GPRS, a subscriber is only charged
according to the quantity of data transmitted, regardless of the
amount of airtime used.
Mobile shopping will enable users to make and pay for
purchases via their handsets, Suluh said.
"If you are out of town and it's your girlfriend's birthday
the next day, why not use your mobile phone to shop for flowers
to be delivered?" he said.
Location dependent services include those applications that
tell you the location of a specific restaurant closest to the
area you are in, and finding out where your friends are at a
specific area, such as in a mall, he said.
Ericsson, on the other hand, is providing Indosat with the
backbone of the DCS-1800 system, mobile Internet, including the
various platforms for software and hardware, Ericsson Indonesia
president Mats H. Olsson said.
Also ready to start in August this year, Ericsson expects
mobile Internet to take hold in the country with the introduction
of GPRS.
To support the impending flood of mobile applications,
Ericsson has established an international forum for developers
called the Ericsson Developers' Zone (EDZ).
"The aim is to accelerate the development of mobile Internet
applications for future telecommunications services," Ericsson's
Internet applications senior manager Hindra Irawan said.
He said that at present EDZ had more than 90,000 individual
members and more than 3,000 corporate members, some of which are
from Indonesia.
"The forum will help Ericsson by generating new designs for
mobile applications," Olsson said, explaining that operable
applications would be implemented in its mobile Internet
applications.
Another telecommunications giant, Nokia, said it was also
ready to support any cellular operators with GPRS technology.
Although it has not had any formal contracts, the Finnish
telecommunications company is currently demonstrating its
technology to Telkomsel, Nokia product marketing manager for
mobile packet core Wayan Aria Teja said.
"We are currently doing a three-month extended demonstration
with Telkomsel. Let's just see how it goes," he said.
Ericsson, Siemens, and Nokia are also ready to provide the
handsets which are able to access GPRS services.
Ericsson plans to launch its R520 later this year, Nokia is
set to launch its 8310 series in the third quarter of this year
and Siemens will launch its S45 in July.