Komselindo sets aside $40m for expansion

Komselindo sets aside $40m for expansion

JAKARTA (JP): PT Komunikasi Selular Indonesia (Komselindo), a
new private cellular telecommunications operator, has allocated
an investment of Rp 90 billion (US$40.14 million) for the
expansion of its cellular telecommunications business.

The company's president, Soedjono Kramadibrata, said yesterday
that the investment will be used to install more digital
switching networks and 67 radio base stations.

Komselindo's director of commerce, Zen Smith, said that the
new radio base stations, which will bring the total number of
such facilities to 113, will use the narrow band advanced mobile
phone service (AMPS) system to provide clearer voice and greater
capacity.

Komselindo, set up with an investment of Rp 300 billion
($133.8 million) in January, is 65 percent controlled by PT
Elektrindo Nusantara, an affiliate of the Bimantara Group, and 35
percent by the state-owned domestic telecommunications operator
PT Telkom.

Komselindo's business was previously run jointly by Telkom and
Elektrindo under a revenue sharing arrangement.

According to Soedjono, AMPS is one of the leading systems used
for cellular telecommunications in the world.

"As of April this year, AMPS had been applied to 51.22 million
cellular mobile telephones or 60.6 percent of such telephones in
the world," he said after signing agreements with 13 appointed
sole agents here yesterday.

Besides AMPS, the analog and digital cellular mobile
telephones in the world also use the American Digital Cellular
(ADC) the Personal Digital Cellular (PDC), Global System for
Mobile communications (GSM) and Nordic Mobile Telephones (NMT)
systems.

In Indonesia, three systems are operated by different
operators -- AMPS by Komselindo and PT Centralindo Pancasakti,
NMT by PT Rajasa Hasanah Perkasa and GSM by PT Satelindo, PT
Telkomsel and PT Telekomindo.

Soedjono said that his company currently controls some 70
percent of the cellular mobile telephone market in Indonesia.

He said Komselindo, whose handsets can be used for
international calls from 16 cities in 12 provinces, currently
lists some 50,000 subscribers.

"The number of subscribers is expected to reach 90,000 next
year and to further increase to 400,000 by the end of 2000," he
said, adding that marketing cooperation with agents will support
business growth.

The 13 sole agents which signed yesterday's agreement are
distributors of branded handsets with the trademarks of Motorola,
NEC, Nokia, Ericsson, Philips, Mitsubishi, JRC, Panasonic,
Audiovox, Hitachi, Oki, Cellstar and Goldstar.

Soedjono said that Komselindo has also installed the automatic
anti-fraud system, a digital system to avoid the cloning of any
of Komselindo's cellular telephones.

"The rate of cloning problems has decreased steadily from 10
percent in March to just three percent in June this year. We
expect to push the rate down to one percent by the end of this
year," he said. (icn)