Mastel files complaint against govt, Telkom
Mastel files complaint against govt, Telkom
Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Telecommunications and Information Society (Mastel) has filed
a complaint with the Business Competition Supervisory Commission
(KPPU) over unfair competition in the industry as a result of
government policy.
KPPU held on Tuesday the first hearing of the case.
Mastel, which groups several telecommunications industry
associations, questioned the appointment of two private firms, PT
Gaharu Sejahtera and PT Atlassat Solusindo, as legal operators of
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).
Mastel chairman Soekarno Abdul Rahman said that the
Directorate General of Telecommunications had not been
transparent in the appointment of the two firms.
"Why has the government issued the license only to the two
firms? ... The limitation equals discrimination toward other VoIP
operators which have been in operation since 1997. We demand that
the government should not limit the operations of VoIPs," he
said.
The government has ruled that independent VoIP operators in
the country must end their business on May 31, 2002.
VoIP technology allows customers to make long distance and
international calls via the Internet at a very cheap cost.
Only the two above companies will be allowed to continue their
VoIP business.
Meanwhile, state-owned telecommunications firm PT Telkom's
director for planning and technology, Kristiono, said that the
limitation on VoIP operators was needed to protect Telkom's
international call business.
"The VoIP operators have used our network for their advantage.
If there's no regulation, Telkom could collapse since
international calls are one of our main sources of revenue. The
revenue from the such calls are used to subsidize our regional
fixed-line telephone operations in which we suffer great
operating losses," he said.
He added that if more VoIP operators were to be allowed to
continue their business, the government must let Telkom raise its
telephone rates.
Mastel also demanded Telkom's subsidiary called TelkomNet
Instant, an Internet service provider (ISP), to be completely
spun off from the state company to allow for fair competition
with other ISP operators.
Mastel argued that TelkomNet had been using Telkom's
infrastructure to allow it to offer better service to customers
at a cheaper rates.
"We suggest that TelkomNet should become an independent
company detached from Telkom, like other ISP operators," said
Soekarno.
KPPU will decide next week whether it would launch an
investigation into Telkom.
According to Article 22 of Antimonopoly Law No. 5/1999,
businesses are prohibited from conspiring with other parties
which may hinder free market competition. KPPU is the agency
established by the government to enforce this law.