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.