Inti gloomy on sales

Inti gloomy on sales

BANDUNG (JP): The state-owned telecommunication equipment manufacturer PT Industri Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Inti) is wary that its products will not be used by private firms assigned to install some 2.25 million telephone lines.

Inti's president, Arsyad Ismael, said here yesterday that out of the five private firms awarded to install new telephone lines by 1998, only one company has expressed interest to use Inti's products.

"We have targeted fewer sales this year of Rp 322.2 billion (US$138 million) as compared with Rp 405.8 performed in 1995," he told members of Commission X (on technology and development) of the House of Representatives who visit Inti's headquarters.

Inti received recently an ISO-9002 certificate for its management from the Dutch standardization organization NV Kema. The certificate was awarded for Inti's digital telephone hub (STDI) production lines.

The government has awarded five Indonesian-foreign companies to operate domestic telecommunication services throughout Indonesia, except for the Greater Jakarta Area and East Java, under 15-year concessions as from January 1996.

The joint venture partners include international telecommunications carriers such as Telstra of Australia, West Inc. of the United States, France Telecom, NTT of Japan, Cable & Wireless of Britain and Singapore Telecom.

Ismael said that among the joint ventures, only the company assigned to install more than 500,000 lines in Sumatra would use Inti's products.(17)