Indosat selects vendors

Indosat selects vendors

JAKARTA (JP): Three telecommunications equipment giants,
Nortel of Canada, Nokia of Finland and Ericsson of Sweden, are
competing to be the vendor of PT Indosat's Personal Communication
Network (PCN) project.

Indosat's president, Tjahjono Soerjodibroto, said here
yesterday in collaboration with PT Inti and PT Telkom, his
company had set up a consortium which will operate DCS-1800 in
the greater Jakarta area by June 1998.

The Digital Cordless System (DCS-1800) and the Personal Mobile
Phone Service (PHS) are two PCN systems already approved by the
government to be applied in Indonesia.

"We are ready to operate the system with or without any
overseas partner as a shareholder. Some companies have already
expressed an interest in joining the consortium, but we don't
think we need any at the moment," Tjahjono said, adding that
Indosat controlled 55 percent of shares in the consortium.

Indosat, Inti and other parties previously set up PT Primasel
to serve PHS in East Java.

The prospective top executive of the DCS-1800 operator, Unggul
S.M. Tampubolon, said the company would be officially and legally
incorporated as a joint venture company later this year.

Tampubolon, who is now Indosat's general manager for legal and
public relations, said the consortium would soon select a vendor
for the system. (icn)