Local cable struggles at home

Local cable struggles at home

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia has failed to develop a fiber optic cable manufacturing industry because contractors of telecommunications projects prefer to bring in such cables from their own countries, an executive suggests.

"Indonesia is currently developing a number of fiber optics telecommunications networks. Unfortunately, most of the projects are being constructed by foreign firms which usually bring in their own materials," the marketing director of PT Jembo Cable Company, Soebiantoro, said yesterday.

Jembo Cable is currently the only Indonesian company capable of producing fiber optic cables with an ISO-9000 standardization.

Soebiantoro said that his company, established in 1973, manufactures various products, including low voltage copper conductor electrical cables, low voltage aluminum conductor electrical cables, medium voltage electrical cables and telecommunications cables.

"Since October 1993 Jembo has been able to produce fiber optic cables," he said.

According to Soebiantoro, his company, which has the capacity to produce 5,000 kilometers of fiber optic cables per year, has not produced any such cables since 1993.

"When we decided to enter the fiber optics business, we knew that the government would establish various fiber optic telecommunications networks. But then the foreign firms, including NKF of the Netherlands, Sumitomo of Japan and Alcatel of France, chose to use their own equipment when they established telecommunications projects in Indonesia," he said.

He said that fiber optic cable can be used in a wide range of networks, including the signaling systems for railway traffic and television broadcasting networks.

"But I don't think that, for the time being, any project other than telecommunications networks uses fiber optic cables in Indonesia," he said.

The state-owned domestic telecommunications company PT Telkom, is currently constructing several fiber optic networks, including the one linking Sumatra, Java and Bali, in order to improve its services.

Telkom's general manager for telecommunications network development planning, Achadiat Djajawinata, said recently that Indonesia will use fiber optic cables for all of its communication networks in the coming years.

Soebiantoro said that Telkom has promised to involve domestic fiber optic cables manufacturers in its network development.

He said that in addition to Jembo, which is listed on the Jakarta Stock Exchange, another company, owned by Gajah Tunggal group of Indonesia and Pirelli of Italy, will produce fiber optic cables within the next few years.(icn)