Mobisel investing $200m to install CDMA technology

JAKARTA (JP): Cellular operator PT Mobile Selular Indonesia (Mobisel) will invest US$200 million to replace its current analog Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) technology with the more advanced digital technology of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), the company announced on Monday.

Mobisel's president Amir Abdul Rachman said that it had signed an agreement last week with Lucent Technologies, which will provide the CDMA infrastructure at the frequency of 450 megahertz.

"The new technology will give customers clearer reception and enable them to benefit from the system's added features, such as SMS," he said in a media conference here.

He said installation of the CDMA technology would commence in September and was expected to be completed by March 2002.

Amir added that the company would install the newest CDMA technology, called CDMA 2000, capable of transmitting data at a speed of 144 kilobits per second.

CDMA is one of two digital cellular technologies widely used today, the other being the Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM). GSM is, however, more popular among Indonesian operators, including PT Telkomsel, PT Satelindo and PT Excelcomindo Pratama.

Other technologies based on the analog system include NMT and the Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS). AMPS is used by Telesera, Metrosel and Komselindo.

Amir said the $200 million investment would be allocated to conversion of the system, the replacement of handsets owned by customers and the expansion of network coverage.

Mobisel currently maintains 135 base transceiver stations (BTS), covering a network that extends throughout Lampung in South Sumatra, Java and Bali.

"Next, we will expand throughout the rest of Sumatra, Kalimantan, further east to Lombok, to eventually cover all of Indonesia," Amir said.

As of March, Mobisel's subscribers numbered between 12,000 and 13,000, he said, adding about 70 percent of the company's subscribers live in rural areas.

"We are targeting customers in places where conventional phones and other digital cellular services cannot operate," Amir said, explaining that its low frequency of 450 megahertz could cover a wider area than the higher frequencies applied by other operators.

Amir said that the number of users was higher than the actual number of subscribers, thanks to services like cellular kiosks, which are locally known as warsel -- a telecommunications kiosk providing services via cellular phones instead of fixed-line phones.

Mobisel provides at least 400 cellular kiosks on board various inter-island ferries, such as on the Merak-Bakauheni route, Mobisel vice president Rudy Martinez said.

"So from just one line, these kiosks could reap more than Rp 5 million (about $476) in revenue a month," he said.

Amir said Mobisel's conversion to CDMA was expected to increase the number of subscribers to more than 200,000 during the first year of operation. (tnt)