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.