Inti, Alcatel to set up fiber optics company

JAKARTA (JP): The state-owned telecommunications equipment producer PT Inti has signed an agreement with French telecommunications giant Alcatel to establish a joint venture fiber optics company.

Inti director Jopie Manduapessy said Wednesday the new company would be 70 percent owned by Alcatel and 30 percent by Inti.

Inti and Alcatel signed the joint venture agreement in Bandung, West Java, on Jan. 7.

"The joint venture, which will produce fiber optics, will be located near Jakarta" he said after an ISO 9002 certificate was presented to PT Telkom's Batam branch division.

He said that Inti had decided to control no more than 30 percent of the joint venture because it wanted to concentrate on its core business.

"Alcatel rivaled Pirelli of Italy and a Taiwanese firm before being selected as our partner. The new company is scheduled to start production by late this year or early 1998."

Jopie refused to provide further information on the new company except that it was likely to be called PT Alcatel Cable Indonesia.

Inti, whose products include telecommunications exchanges, telephones and pay phones, is one of 10 state strategic enterprises overseen by the Agency for the Management of Strategic Industries, which is chaired by Minister of Research and Technology B.J. Habibie.

Inti set up PT Indoprima Mikroselindo -- a venture with several partners including state-owned PT Indosat and PT Yamabri Komunikasindo, a company controlled by the Foundation of Military Headquarters -- to operate the Personal Handy-phone System for cellular telecommunications in Surabaya, East Java, later this year. (icn)