Mobisel offers shares to foreign investors
Mobisel offers shares to foreign investors
JAKARTA (JP): Private analog cellular operator PT Mobile
Selular Indonesia (Mobisel) plans to sell between 10 percent and
20 percent of its shares to foreign investors.
Company vice president for marketing and sales, Dario
Fasciano, said six companies had expressed interest in taking
part in the private placement.
"There are already six companies bidding for the
opportunities. We expect to complete the process by the first
quarter in 1998," he told The Jakarta Post Wednesday.
But he refused to name the potential bidders and the expected
value of the private placement.
"They are from European nations," he said, adding the sale of
the shares was aimed at improving the company's financial
strength.
Mobisel operates Orbit, an analog mobile cellular
telecommunications unit using the Nordic mobile telephone (NMT-
450i) system.
Fasciano said 29,000 people subscribed to Orbit, 85 percent of
who live in the greater Jakarta area.
"We expect to have 80,000 users by the end of this year. Orbit
coverage now includes Lampung in Sumatra and Lombok in West Nusa
Tenggara through the northern route in Java and Bali."
He said Orbit had installed 100 radio base stations (RBS) to
support its network and would increase stations continuously.
Mobisel, incorporated in February 1996, 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, a firm
owned by businessman Hutomo (Tommy) Mandala Putra, previously
operated the NMT-450, the first generation of the NMT-450i
system.
"Orbit will just be a service of Mobisel as we plan to offer
other telecommunications services in the future. Some of the
services will be based on cellular technology," he said, adding
that his company also planned to operate digital cellular
services.
The NMT-450i cellular technology service was developed in
Europe. The system is suited to countries with a similar
geography to Indonesia because its signal band offers wider
geographic coverage at a substantially lower cost than other
cellular technology.
Indonesia has licensed three nationwide mobile cellular
telecommunications operators to use the global system for mobile
communications (GSM) technology. They are PT Satelindo, PT
Telkomsel and PT Excelcomindo. It has also licensed three
cellular operators, PT Metrosel, PT Telesera and PT Komselindo,
to cover several provinces with the advanced mobile phone system
(AMPS), which can be upgraded to a code division multiple access
(CDMA) system.
The government has issued other licenses to several companies
to run DCS-1800 and PHS systems locally and nationwide in the
near future. (icn)