Indosat to raise phone rates to S'pore

Indosat to raise phone rates to S'pore

JAKARTA (JP): International telecommunications provider PT
Indosat is waiting for a government approval to raise billing
rates to Singapore, the company announced yesterday.

Indosat said the call-rate rise was needed to compensate for
the government's policy of continuous depreciation of the rupiah.

"The increase is also important to match the higher tariff
from Singapore to Indonesia," the company said.

The company said Singapore Telecom's decision to cut its
international rates by an average of 7.6 percent from January
this year did not significantly reduce the tariff gap.

SingTel's new rates include a 5-Singapore cent reduction on
calls to Indonesia, down to S$1.75 a minute, Indosat said. The
new rate is equal to Rp 2,958.61, or 13.8 percent higher than
Indosat's rate of Rp 2,600 a minute to Singapore.

SingTel's new weekend rate is S$1.3, down 30 cents from the
previous rate. The new rate, equal to Rp 2,192, is 12.4 percent
higher than Indosat's rate of Rp 1,950 a minute to Singapore.

Indosat said it and SingTel had agreed to reduce the
accounting rate to Gold France Currency (GFC) 2.40 a minute from
next January, from GFC2.60 a minute at present.

The accounting rate reduction would let Indosat save 7.6
percent on its out-payments to SingTel, said Indosat which is
listed on the Jakarta and New York stock exchanges.

"Combining these two situations together we view that the
effect of the accounting rate reduction is more on the positive
side for Indosat," the company said.

Incoming and outgoing traffic between Indonesia and Singapore
are split 49 percent and 51 percent respectively. The Indonesia-
Singapore volume of traffic grows between 15 percent and 18
percent yearly. (hen)