KPN offers its experience to Indonesia
KPN offers its experience to Indonesia
By I. Christianto
GRONINGEN, Netherlands (JP): With its wide experience as one
of the leading telecommunications and postal service operators in
the world, Koninklijke PTT Nederland/Royal PTT Nederland (KPN)
offers assistance to Indonesia in training its human resources.
Top executives of the company told Indonesian reporters
visiting its headquarters here recently that the firm is
interested in providing assistance for Indonesia both in
telecommunications and postal services.
Ph. van Tijn, KPN's director of corporate communications, said
that his company offers a combination of postal and
telecommunications services. "The combination makes KPN unique,"
he said.
Postal and telecommunications services are provided by KPN's
major subsidiaries, PTT Post and PTT Telecom.
PTT Telecom's manager for international training, Toine van
Bijsterveldt, said that his company and PT Telkom, Indonesia's
state-owned domestic telecommunications operator, have inked an
accord to conduct joint training services within a six-year
period.
He said that the training will be held both in Bandung, West
Java, the site of Telkom's headquarters, and in the Netherlands.
"We want to assist Telkom to make its training center one of
its profit sources," said van Bijsterveldt.
According to van Bijsterveldt, PTT Telecom's training center
here has now become a profit center, as its revenues are expected
to increase significantly from 600,000 guilders (US$375,000) in
1992 to 6 million guilders this year.
PTT Telecom and Telkom started their relationship in 1993 when
they signed a strategic cooperation agreement.
Interest
PTT Telecom has expressed serious interest in participating in
the development of Indonesia's telecoms industry. PTT Telecom
owns a 30 percent stake in PT Bakrie Electronics Company, a
Bakrie Group subsidiary which installs and operates radio
telephone lines.
The company is also participating in a tender to buy a portion
of the shares of PT Telkomsel, a global system for mobile
communications cellular phone operator in Indonesia. In addition
to the projects, PTT has also provided aid for a school
development in South Sulawesi.
PTT Telecom has established several joint ventures and
subsidiaries. The company, for instance, participates in
Unisource, an alliance with Telia of Sweden, Swiss PTT and
Telefonica of Spain. Unisource currently provides data and other
value-added services for business customers in Western Europe.
Late last year, Unisource and AT&T of the United States
established a join venture company, called Uniworld, to provide a
full range of global data and voice service for customers in
Europe.
Unisource also acquired in 1994 a 20 percent stake in
WorldPartners, a telecommunications company which is also owned
by AT&T, KDD of Japan and Singapore Telecom.
Together with PTT Post, PTT Telecom has established KPN
Multimedia to provide high-tech services using infrastructure
operated by the two owning companies.
According to Van Tijn, KPN is also offering cooperation to
Indonesia's state-owned postal company, PT Pos Indonesia.
PTT Post handles a total of 21 million letters a day,
including 19 million business letters.