More phones for Sumatra

More phones for Sumatra

JAKARTA (JP): PT Pramindo Ikat Nusantara, a private company
responsible for the development of telecommunications facilities
in Sumatra, will install 100,000 new telephone lines by the end
of this year, 33 percent more than its original target.

Pramindo, a joint venture between the Astra Group of Indonesia
and France Cable et Radio, a subsidiary of France Telecom, is one
of the five private firms awarded 15-year concessions by the
state-owned PT Telkom to install a total of two million new
telephone lines in five different areas of the country. Pramindo
is required to install 516,487 new lines in Sumatra by 1999 and
manage them along with the existing ones until 2010.

"The beginning of the construction program is ahead of
schedule which, for the next two years, makes us very confident,"
France Telecom's group executive vice president for networks,
Jean Yves Gouiffes, said yesterday.

He was in Indonesia for a five-day visit to review the
progress of France Telecom's projects in the country.

Pramindo has secured a US$400 million finance package from 31
financial institutions, including the International Finance
Corporation, to facilitate the Sumatra project. (icn)