Internet-beeper service launched

JAKARTA (JP): PT Selarasindo Mulia and PT Bitnet Komunikasindo have launched a new service called Metronet, which allows Internet users to send direct message to radio-pager (beeper) users in Indonesia without dialing the pager operator.

The two firms launched the new service amid the stiffer competition in the country's information and telecommunications business.

PT Selarasindo is a nationwide beeper operator with the Metrotel brand and Bitnet is an Internet service provider affiliated with Elang Mahkota Tehnologi.

Selarasindo's manager, Hendra Wijaya, said here over the weekend: "With Metronet, Internet users worldwide are able to send messages direct to beeper users subscribing to Metrotel pagers. This may reduce phone bills. Metronet's service also offers confidentiality because no operator is involved in message delivery."

He said that although cellular phones, as telecommunications tools, continued to dominate the telecommunications market, beepers remained a choice as a complementary device.

Metronet services include Web pages and e-mail notification.

The Web pages through http://www.metrotel.co.id will allow message delivery service. Internet users have to know a beeper's ID and password to send a message to a Metrotel beeper user.

E-Mail notification is valid for Bitnet account owners. The service informs of any incoming e-mail messages to Bitnet users via Metrotel pager, therefore they do not have to check their accounts.

Selarasindo Mulia, with its Metrotel beepers, is one of the radio paging carriers licensed to operate nationally.

There are currently 90 radio paging operators in Indonesia, half of which are located in Jakarta. Ten of these 90 firms are licensed to operate nationally, including PT Telematrixindo with its EasyCall, PT SkyTelindo with its Skytel, PT Duta Pertiwi Santosa with its Starpage and PT Indolink First Pacific with its Indolink. The other nationwide beepers are Starko, Nusa Page, Buana Bintang Bayu and Gematel.

Wijaya said that Metrotel, which was launched last year, currently operates in the Greater Jakarta area and Bandung, West Java.

"Metrotel will expand later this year its networks to major cities in Java and Sumatra including Semarang, Yogyakarta, Surakarta, Bali, Dumai and Medan," he said, adding that his company would fully operate nationwide by 1999. (icn)