Lucent wins $105m million CDMA deal

Lucent wins $105m million CDMA deal

JAKARTA (JP): Analog cellular operator PT Komselindo has
awarded a US$105 million contract to Lucent Technologies of the
United States to supply and install the country's first
commercial Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technology.

According to a statement issued yesterday, Lucent would set up
an overlay CDMA system on Komselindo's existing network of analog
narrow-band Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS) system in
Jakarta; Bandung in West Java; Manado and Ujungpandang in
Sulawesi; Medan and Banda Aceh in Sumatra.

Komselindo's CDMA blueprint calls for the eventual
establishment of a 750,000-user network, Lucent said.

More than 300 base stations and the 13-kilobyte-per-second
CDMA voice-coder would be supplied and installed by Lucent which
won a bid over Samsung of South Korea and Motorola of the United
States.

The initial system set up will be completed within a six month
period, according to Lucent.

Komselindo is 65 percent owned by PT Elektrindo Nusantara, an
affiliate of the Bimantara Group, and 35 percent by state-owned
domestic telecommunications operator PT Telkom.

In addition to Komselindo, there are two other AMPS operators
in Indonesia, PT Metrosel and PT Telekomindo which also plan to
upgrade their services into CDMA systems later this year.

AMPS telephones have been known to suffer from fraud and
cloning problems.

The government has approved the U.S. developed-CDMA
technology, which can reduce overall network costs and provide
exceptional voice quality. CDMA is being adopted around the world
as the wireless industry standard to deliver digital cellular and
personal communications services. It offers economical, clear and
secure wireless communications. (icn)