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.