Mentari prepaid card usable nationwide

JAKARTA (JP): Users of Mentari's prepaid card can now make calls from their cellular phone to and from all 27 provinces, cellular operator PT Satelit Palapa Indonesia (Satelindo) announced on Friday.

Company president Saleh Gunawan said Satelindo expanded its Mentari card network from its current service in cities in Java, Madura and Bali to tap growing demand for prepaid cards in provinces outside Java.

"The rapid increase in Mentari's users has forced us to speed up the improvement of our infrastructure by expanding our networks and base transceiver station," he said at the launching ceremony for the service.

"Cellular users are now able to use Mentari to make calls from and to cities all over Indonesia."

Mentari previously covered only cities in Java and Madura islands but Satelindo expanded coverage to Bali last month.

"Growing demand for prepaid cards from cellular users outside Java has encouraged us to expand our service," he said.

He did not disclose the investment involved in the expansion.

Saleh said there were currently more than 460,000 users of the card, exceeding Satelindo's 160,000 postpaid subscribers, even though it was introduced less than a year ago.

"Since it was launched in September last year, Mentari has received an outstanding response from the public because it is more economical compared to other prepaid cards."

The prepaid card is a subscriber identity module card with limited time which allows users to make as many local calls as they want until the purchased time runs out. The prepaid cards are refillable.

Saleh said Satelindo would provide short message services for Mentari users starting in October.

The company also will sell Mentari's voucher-less starter kit in October, he added.

Minister of Communications Giri Suseno Hadihardjono said cellular operators must continue improving their services to prepaid card users.

"The selling of prepaid cards has helped cellular operators to survive during the country's economic crisis which has dragged down the number of postpaid card subscribers," he said in his written speech read by Director General of Post and Telecommunications Sasmito Dirdjo.

Giri said that the number of cellular users increased significantly after the launching of prepaid cards, beginning with SimPATI cards in November 1997.

The number of cellular users is currently 1.5 million after plunging to 700,000 in mid-1998. The number was 1.3 million before the economic crisis struck the country in July 1997. (gis)