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)