Mobile Selular gets $60 million loan

Mobile Selular gets $60 million loan

JAKARTA (JP): PT Mobile Selular Indonesia (Mobisel), a private
cellular telecommunications provider, signed an agreement
yesterday on a US$60 million credit facility with Nissho Iwai
International of Japan.

Mobisel is 70 percent owned by PT Rajasa Hazanah Perkasa, 25
percent by state-owned PT Telkom and 5 percent by Telkom's
employee pension fund. Rajasa, partly owned by International
Wireless Communications of the United States and PT Detona Satya
Dinamika, is controlled by PT Bina Reksa Perdana, a firm owned by
businessman Hutomo (Tommy) Mandala Putra.

Mobisel's president, Suprapto Pegeng, said that the commercial
loan would be used to finance the expansion of the company's
improved Nordic mobile telephone (NMT-450i) system.

The project was previously run by Rajasa, which applied NMT-
450, the first generation of the system.

"There are currently 26,000 NMT-450 subscribers. We expect to
increase the number to 80,000 subscribers later this year after
the establishment of a network spanning from Lampung in southern
Sumatra to Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara," he said.

He said that Mobisel was the only NMT-450i license holder in
Indonesia to operate nationally.

The government has licensed three nation-wide mobile cellular
telecoms operators using the global system for mobile
communications (GSM) technology -- including PT Satelindo, PT
Telkomsel and PT Excelcomindo. In the meantime, there are also
three telecoms operators, PT Metro Selular Nusantara, PT
Telekomindo and PT Komselindo, applying the advanced mobile phone
system (AMPS-800) in several provinces.

An analyst said that for the same coverage the investment cost
for the NMT-450i system was one-third cheaper than for a GSM
project and 50 percent less than an AMPS project.

Nissho Iwai's general manager for telecommunications systems,
Naoyoshi Abe, said that his company is also negotiating with
Mobisel to acquire up to 10 percent of its shares. (icn)