Komselindo to offer international roaming

Komselindo to offer international roaming

JAKARTA (JP): PT Komselindo, a mobile cellular
telecommunications operator, will start offering international
roaming later this month, the company's commercial director said
yesterday.

Zen Smith said the company's international roaming would
initially cover Malaysia, Thailand and Australia.

"In the beginning we will start with Malaysia," he said,
adding that the firm would cooperate with the Malaysian firm
Mobicom.

Zen said the firm would cover Australia in cooperation with
Telstra, and Thailand in cooperation with Total Acces Cellular
System. It would then look at entering Hong Kong.

He said that Lucent Technology, a subsidiary of AT&T, had
won a contract to install 166,500 telephone lines for PT
Komselindo. The project was part of the company's plan to employ
the cellular digital mobile advanced (CDMA) system, a more
advanced technology compared to the advanced mobile phone system
(AMPS) and global system for mobile (GSM) communications now
operating in Indonesia.

The application of high technology such as CDMA, he said, was
a prerequisite amid the cut-throat competition among cellular
phone operators in Indonesia.

The contract would include the construction of 300 base
transceiver stations and seven central digital switches in
Jakarta, he said.

"The project is expected to be completed by October 1997," he
said, adding that the firm had allocated around US$150 million
(Rp 354 billion) for the project.

On the government's recent move to cut air-time tariffs, Zen
said it would not affect the company's business: "But we don't
yet know the actual impact on revenue."

The government announced late last month a cut in the tariff
for cellular services to Rp 270 a minute from Rp 275.

He said that by December last year the company had 105,000
subscribers and hoped to have 175,000 subscribers by the end of
1997. "The target to increase the subscribers will surely be
followed by maintaining the existing subscribers," he said.

He said that Komselindo, 35 percent owned by Telkom and 65
percent by Elektrindo Nusantara, was working on interconnections
with other AMPS operators like PT Telesera and PT Metrosel
Nusantara. Komselindo, he said, covered Greater Jakarta, West
Java, North Sumatra, Aceh, Padang and Ujungpandang and Manado in
North Sulawesi.

Telesera covers Bali, Kalimantan, Palembang, Batam, Riau and
Lampung and PT Metrosel Nusantara covers Central and East Java,
Maluku and Irian Jaya.

With interconnection cooperation, he said, the subscribers of
Komselindo could communicate with mobile users in areas not
covered by firm. "Someone in Jakarta can communicate with
somebody in Bali," he said. Komselindo does not cover Bali but
Telesera does.

He said the firm had introduced a total guarantee for the
cellular phone handsets owned by it. The guarantee would cover a
handset exchange because of loss, breakage, fire or theft.

"But it does not guarantee phone handsets bought directly from
the factory," he said because they had their own factory
guarantees.

The country now has seven companies which offer cellular
mobile telecommunications. They use three different systems: GSM
communications, the most recently introduced system, operated by
PT Telkomsel, PT Satelindo and PT Excelcomindo; AMPS an older
analog system, operated by Metrosel, Telesera and PT Komselindo;
and Nordic Mobile Telephone, an analog service primarily
installed in vehicles, operated by PT Mobisel. (09)