Legislators call for limit on cellular operators

JAKARTA (JP): Legislators have called on the government to limit the issuance of licenses to new cellular operators in the country and instead focus on improving existing services.

Burhanuddin Napitulu of the House of Representative's Commission V for telecommunications, post and tourism, public works and public housing said yesterday the government must be more selective in issuing licenses to new cellular operators.

"This would prevent us from having an oversupply in the sector and providing insufficient services to customers," he said during the commission's inspection of cellular operator PT Telkomsel.

Given the rapid growth of cellular operators in the country, it seemed the government was not being selective enough, he said.

The government has recently opened tenders for 11 new cellular licenses to operate the Personal Communication Network, which includes the Digital Cordless System and Personal Mobile Phone Service (PHS). The government earlier issued licenses to five firms to operate in the two cellular systems.

Indonesia currently has seven cellular operators running three different cellular telephone systems. They are PT Telesera, PT Metrosel, PT Komselindo, PT Mobisel, PT Satelindo, PT Telkomsel and PT Excelcomindo.

Burhanuddin said in a few years Indonesia would have 23 cellular operators, most of which would begin operations in Jakarta.

Discuss

He suggested the government discuss the matter with the House of Representatives before issuing such licenses.

"At least let us know by conducting hearings with us, before awarding the licenses to more operators," he said.

Burhanuddin said he was concerned operators would only be interested in making profit and would neglect customers' needs for good service.

Many cellular phone users have filed complaints against the existing services in the country. Complaints include operators' limited coverage and unsuccessful or uncompleted connections.

Cellular phone users have also complained about administrative errors that resulted in irregular monthly invoices.

Satelindo's transition to a new billing system, which caused many administrative errors, recently angered many of its customers as the amount of their phone bills was unrealistically multiplied.

Hundreds of Telkomsel customers lined up at the company's customer service office last week to complain about having their services disconnected.

Telkomsel's president Koesmarihati Sugondo said yesterday one of the causes of the disconnections was late notifications from banks from which the account was withdrawn to pay the bill. (das)